The Tales of the 3 Meitantei Plus Magician Friend
by Daydreamer1412
Summary: I haven't forgotten! After a year hiatus, I'm back! Chapter 9 finally up! "It would be all too difficult to recount just when his simple peasant life in a medieval world of monsters, mayhem, and of course magic. Regardless, one must begin somewhere. He personally blamed the juggling balls."
1. Demented Domination

I fixed it! I recently realized that I had a couple of small grammar mistakes, so I cleaned it up a bit, as I did with Chapter 2. R&R with suggestions and comments! Flames will be used for marshmallows.

I honestly have NO idea where this came from. This is un-betaed, slightly looked over, and AU-ish. Put NOTHING past it. If you look through the crappiness of it all, then feel free to take this universe and run with it- please ask me though first.

Then again, you people were crazy enough to fall for my summary. Suckers.

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><p>Drabblet #1 Demented Dominations<p>

It was a warm spring day in the lunch pavilion of the high school. Of what was left of the student populace that wasn't playing soccer on the field or in lunch clubs were sprawled throughout the pristine white tables of the outdoor cafeteria. They were enjoying the pleasant surprise of the sun; although it was well into spring, some of the winter rains still lingered.

In some of the farthest outskirts of the tables were sitting four male Third year students, none too far from the geeks and loners. To the onlooker the scene seemed innocent enough- the dark haired one with blue-violet eyes seemed to finish a story to a blonde foreigner, much to their relief. The blue eyed boy and his dark skinned friend were half listening while eating their lunches. The dark skinned one yawned and said something. A millisecond later his friend spat out the egg was eating and yelled, "You did WHAT?"

They could only be the one and only Meitantei Three, the most famous and nation renowned teen detectives and popular kids at their school. Oh, and their Magician Friend. People liked him too.

The Hattori Heiji nonchalantly waved the question off. "Oh, just signed you up for President. Pass the soy sauce, please."

Kudo Shinichi threw condiment at him, with all intentions to hit him in the eye, but Heiji caught it just in time. "I get the feeling that you're not too pleased with this." He noted, drowning his food with the dark liquid.

"NO I'M NOT!" he snarled. Kuroba Kaito (the not-so-awesome non-detective) raised an eyebrow at his fuming near-twin, usually so cool and collected. It was obvious he was fighting to keep his composure. He was almost disappointed in an odd way; he'd never achieved this level of fury from his cousin. At least, not with him showing it this much. He'd have to get better at this. That train of thought soon crashed when an evil aura overtook the formally sane young man, as he began uttering some incantation of some sort under his breath.

Hakuba Saguru, the poor Brit who had the misfortune of being seated within a 14.1 foot radius of his friend, widened his eyes in disbelief at the murmurs. "Uh, Kudo, calm down, OK? Hattori is just pulling a prank, right?"

Needless to say this behavior wasn't normal; even for the abnormal death magnet that was the being of one Kudo Shinichi and his friends.

"Nope," the said teen, seemingly oblivious to the danger to his psychical health. " I genuinely mean it. If I'm going to be Vice President, I have to work with someone that I won't strangle."

"_Why me?" _Shinichi growled, voice dripping with venom.

Don't think the feeling is mutual," The blonde chuckled nervously. His domburi didn't look as appetizing as before. "Besides, you must have some other candidates in mind?"

"Of course I did!" The soon-to-be murder victim turned to his right and snorted indignantly. "In fact, there were several people that came before him. But I then realized that all of them either hated me, I hated them, or they were dead. Bet they wished they were nice to me."

"Why doesn't this shock me?" the magician deadpanned drily.

He waved to Saguru and Kaito offhandedly. "You two were possible candidates." he locked eyes with Kaito and smirked. "But you was a gone from the get go." Kaito looked as if he wanted to protest, but he cut him off. "As if I would ever be insane enough to let you into a seat of power if I could help it. Kami knows what you would do. Hakuba, you were out as well, since you're always busy during meeting hours either having tea, training Watson, or grooming your cat, Irene-"

"Wait, wait, you actually have a cat named _Irene_? You should really invest in a human relationship, you lonely spinster you."

"Shut up! I specified that was never to leave the house Hattori."

The said detective seemed unfazed. "Also to add to Kuroba's cons, I know he is currently trying to disprove to his Mom that he's taken up cross dressing, as his great uncle sent him a bra in the mail. That would take a few too many days to take into consideration on my schedule."

"What was that Kuroba?" The blonde grinned sadistically. "I believe turnabout is fair play."

Kaito eyes shifted to his right. "Touché. He punched a fist into the air as if he were a preacher driving home a point. "I do hereby propose a pact that these matters never leave this table, and shall never be heard of again. Anyone who does not abide by these conditions shall be subject to punishment of the victim's choice, however creative it may be." he smirked mischievously and the last.

"I second the notion!"

"As do I. Loud mouthed twit..." the last was muttered English.

Shinichi grunted in agreement, or from what they could hope.

Saguru and Kaito mentally sighed in relief, partially in their strange habits were for now kept six feet under from the world, and that their very scary friend's atmosphere had become significantly less sinister, replaced by a more rational sense of mind. With any luck, Kazuha and Ran won't unleash their wrath upon the poor witnesses. It almost seemed that their lunch break would return to normal. Or at least normal for these four, which meant that everyone present was alive. The four included. For the time being.

So Heiji, being, well, Heiji, just had to ruin there chances of their getting a clean break impossible, and only amplify their chances of bring the aho home in a bloody body bag. Self preservation never really was his thing. "Oh, you can't pull out now. Too close to elections. Hell, with your reputation, you would probably have to murder someone yourself to get of the poll!"

Shinichi's eyes widened in first shock, then quickly mutated in a look a fury, bento left forgotten.

"Of course, I considered running for president myself, but I couldn't be so negligent to my kendo team- I am their captain you know. This was the highest position I could take while still paying equal attention to both. Funny, and they were the ones who pushed me into this.

He continued, talking to the British detective and magician as if Shinichi wasn't even there. "Anyway, with those thoughts in mind, I was left with no choice but Kudo. I knew I would have to sign him up without his knowing. He'd probably come up with some crappy excuse to being unavailable. A pitiful social life aside from the dead, popular enough to win without a hassle, and some brains to fill that fat head? Perfect! Least I won't be stuck with some power hungry geek that can't make a statement to save his life." he shrugged, but it was obvious he was rather pleased with himself.

There was a silence. An ominous wind blew by. Kaito and Saguru glanced to the other side the table eyebrows raised. Even for the collected detective, this level of calmness from him was downright scary.

"…Hattori." Shinichi began, his hair covering eyes, "Do you realize that this Apotoxin cure is still in its trial stage? That Haibara isn't entirely sure if I will stay as myself? _Or that there may still be some syndicate members around?_"

"Uh…"

Shinichi shot a glare that could melt steel. "You fool!" he snarled. His outburst attracted the nearby tables; not every day you got to see the great Kudo Shinichi bent out of shape this badly. He reduced his voice to a low but still furious whisper. "Do you realize that not only the lives of you and I, but everyone involved with us could be endangered! I have to stay low! Now I'm going to have my name in the open, to the entire school district, an easy enough system to hack? This is BAD Hattori, don't you realize it- why are you laughing dammit?"

It was true; Hattori was having a jolly good laugh at the prospect at his own self destruction, much like a crazed suicide bomber. He was seemingly unaffected by the piercing gaze, whereas Saguru and Kaito had taken to eyeing the light-skinned detective warily, as a zookeeper would a rabid beast. Finally Hattori wiped the tears that were forming in the corners of his eyes.

"You mean that sleepy-mini Neechan? Ha! She said so herself that it was permanent change and that the all the Shadow Syndicate branches have been burned. In fact, I overheard her yesterday talking to Agasa-Hakase about getting rid of you! Said you were coming every other day like it was a religion or something. Even Neechan was trying to get you to find a hobby! So, being the awesome person I am, I saved you the trouble and signed you up!

"Knowing you to be the ego-centric manic you are, I know you wouldn't mind a seat of power. And it probably won't take much effort or skill to run the school of sheep with time to spare. Being the awesomely humble person I am, I'm willing to let you take the position because of my earlier said reasons, but with more or less the same power with lower expectations and paperwork!"

"That's a moronic sense of brilliance." Saguru stated, in awe.

Heiji frowned, eyes furrowing. "I'm think I should be offended by that…"

Kaito nodded approvingly through a suppressed snicker. "Stupid as Hattori may be-"

"OI!"

"You really shouldn't be so paranoid. We burned off the last branches of Syndicate a long while ago. If there were any operatives left that are stupid enough to strike so soon without any resources wouldn't be an issue. Something as minor as your being seen on a school district poll also wouldn't matter even if they had power. Whatever Syndicate reject underling that slipped through the cracks would probably already know, since we screwed over the majority of their uppers anyway. You also forget that all of the police districts of Japan are on high alert for Them. They would be spotted in a heartbeat." He took another bite from his mochi.

Saguru was the one that the broke the stupefied silence that followed the magician's reasoning. "That actually sounded rational, Kuroba. It's good, but it's just… "

"Freaky?" Heiji offered.

"Yes, but sound advice."

Kaito had the decency to look offended. "You say that as if I usually don't have any good advice."

"Half of the time you don't." Shinichi sighed. "That's why it's pretty sad that we're taking advice from you, of all people."

"Barou!" Kaito then attacked Shinichi in a vicious head noogie, to which he half- protested though a good natured glare. Once Kaito released his cousin, Shinichi then magically styled his hair to its maximum cowlick-yness, he appeared to be completely wiped of his Evil Aura of Utmost Doom.

Seeing the almost abrupt change in temper, the former death row contender decided to go for a confirmation. Who knew when the moody jerk (AKA his best detective buddy) would return? He liked his smartass moods better. Much more fun to mess with him. "So, uh, no hard feelings, right Kudo?"Heiji experimentally offered an arm.

Shinichi grasped his arm firmly, and pulled in for a quick man-hug. _Fwt-Fwt-Fwt Fwt!_

"Penguin ear cream…" like a huge redwood timbering down, the Great Detective of the West fell into his okonomiyaki, snoring loudly.

"None what so ever." A sickeningly sweet smile.

Saguru couldn't hold back a grin. "Wasn't that three too many?"

"I think he's still moving…" Kaito broke in. The darkly tanned hand was twitching in a spastic manner. Another swift shot from the watch set it to rest, limp.

"That should do. At least, he'll be out until the last period."

"I suppose. Hattori did have it coming."

"Yeah, lucky you're a detective, or this would have been a very messy crime scene." The magician poked his eye with a nearby stick he found.

Shinichi didn't miss a beat. "Barou. I'm not stupid enough to commit unpremeditated murder. I have enough respect for, the then former, detective of the west, to annihilate him in a way the even he, alive or in the afterlife, could never dream of solving. It would be in a clever, stylish manner, virtually impossible, but dignified. A little poetic justice would also play a hand in it." He spoke in such a relaxed way, as if he already planned out the exact circumstances of Hattori Heiji's murder. The thought sent shivers up the spine.

He flashed another creepy, knowing smile at the remaining conscious students. They unwillingly glanced up, at full attention.

"Do keep Hattori from suffocation. I would like him to suffer the aftereffects of his folly. If you will excuse me gentlemen, I believe I now have an election to single handedly conquer. Ja ne." he gave a small wave as strode off smoothly and confidently toward the elections stand.

The remaining two blinked, glanced at their now unconscious friend. Slowly they brought their gazes to each other and silently conveyed mental messages to each other. Saguru sighed at checked his pocket watch. 12:43; the day he ceased whatever social life (animal or otherwise). At least he wouldn't go down alone.

"I'll be the secretary if you're treasurer?"

"Sounds good to me. Pass the soy sauce please."

And so normality was restored.

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><p>…Again not a clue. The plunnie always floated in my mind, and it just… Happened. I thought the positions fit them all nicely.<p>

Ha ha. I made the Gosho Boys loners! Ehh, they probably would like interact with people, this is post Shadow Syndicate. (Organization is only Organization XIII for me. And the initials suck.) It's debatable about how much information was introduced to the public, and even if it wasn't, it's the GOSHO BOYS.

*I should probably mention this is all canon couples ;D*

And don't worry Kid/Kaito fans! I wuvles Kai-chan as much as you~ 3. I just think if in his normal persona, he isn't a famous as the Meitantei Three. That is unless, you let him pull a prank. Or Bring Kid into the equation. The he obliterates them all. Period.

Ja ne!

Until My Next Stupid Drabble,

~Daydreamer1412

(Would be the time to mention this is my first story? Yeah. **I love you all! ***Bribes readers with chocolate*


	2. Crime and Punishment

*Sniffle* YOU GUYS ARE SO NICE! Thank you for review, you guys made my day 3. I have decided this ongoing fic will be with two or more Gosho Boys thrown into random situations that I think would be hilarious or freakin adorable. I REALLY need some more ideas though if I update this often, or it will be done out of whim. Specific or vague as you want, but be warned- I pick what I can do- don't be mad if it doesn't show up.

**Missjennifer54**-san: First reviewer! Go you! I love canon couples too! There is nothing of Gosho's couplings I would change. But I do consider Saguru/Akako canon, mainly 'cause they both seem lonely, so that will appear. But my all time favorite is still Kaito/Aoko XD.

_Ayumi Kudou_-san: Don't worry, I have absolutely NO intentions of turning this yaoi. There may be a little of their poking fun at each other, but never anything that even hints it. They each have their own ladyloves. They will be making a debut together eventually. And thanks! The world needs more of the Gosho Boys without the impending DC/MK climax.

**Asmith137-san**: Smithy-chan! You read it! *sniffle* I glad you like it! I was worried, 'cause this isn't your normal fandom, so I thought you'd get annoyed or something. But YAYNESS! I wuvels you Smithy-chan! I'll beta that next chaplet soon okay?

R&R please! I feel loved!

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><p>Drabblet #2 Crime and Punishment<p>

"…You do realize this is all your fault, right?"

"Me? This is all you guy's fault!"

"Honestly Kuroba? A reindeer in the loo? After all that happened?"

"Guys-"

"You were stupid enough to actually follow, and Fido helped save the day! Excuse me for having some Christmas spirit, Uncle Scrooge."

"Oh really? In freakin' JANUARY smartass?"

"I actually like think ahead, unlike SOME people…"

"Like your alias, perhaps?"

"You guys-"

"I have no idea no idea what you're talking about, unless I you think I have a multiple personality disorder like you."

"Nah, I think it's more of an obsession."

"Why you bloody-"

"But anyway, I'm interested how you're going slip your way out of this one."

"Don't you DARE compare me to those evil slimy f-finny things?"

"Like that don't you? Let me spell it for you F-I-S-"

"**WILL** **YOU MORONS **_**SHUT UP? **_**You**** are giving me a headache from **_**HELL**_**.**"

The office grew silent. Green, brown and blue-violet eyes trained on the source of the outburst. Finally a hearty chorus of laughter erupted from the young men surrounding the poor headache victim. Even the ever composed Saguru had let down a wall and chuckled as Heiji and Kaito poked fun at the already irate Shinichi.

"Second time this week, Kudo…" Kaito snickered.

Heiji attempted to muffle his laughing, to no effect. "You'll be the first teenager to get a stress related aneurysm." And the humiliation began all over again.

Shinichi could feel his eye twitch disturbingly. He gave a sigh in defeat, forced the spasming eye to close and pinched the bridge of his nose. It wasn't fair. It really wasn't. "Barous…"They had managed to calm down by the time the door opened from across the office.

A very petite woman, no more than probably 4'11 strode into the room; although her psychical stature was rather diminutive, she somehow gave the expression of being tall. On the heavier-set side, she seemed to be in her early forties, but if you were to go from her greasy bun and firm expression, you could mistake her for a decade older. The wart on the base of her nose didn't help matters, nor did her rather muscular arms. A _haapa _(1)- the Japanese gene was dominate on her overall appearance, but the Spanish heritage was evident. The woman seemed to be swimming in her mud colored suit; it was on accented when her small frame seemed to barely compensate for the sheer massiveness of the worn down black armchair behind the desk. That lovely pallet of color were the only ones save for the boys; everything else was a harsh gunmetal hue. The desk, walls, floors- and was that her teeth? It was hard to tell from the rather from the dark eyes peeking out from the furry caterpillars that were eyebrows. There were just so many things that were just so wrong it was hard for any of the Three Meitantei (plus Magician Friend) to focus on anything. Thankfully their attention could be drawn when her voice sounded, completely contrasting with her outward appearance.

"So boys," her voice was musical in itself, fluent in its native tongue but with a slight accent. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Saguru, being the most diplomatic, cleared his throat to speak. "Hello, my name is-"

"I am Omura Honoka, the owner of this establishment. Now, why haven't you introduced yourselves?"

"We apologize ma'am, for the offense-"Saguru started.

"And sit up straight! And take off that dingy hat!" Honoka snapped and Heiji, who reacted as if a lightning bolt hit him. She turned her glare to Shinichi "And WHY are you in a suit?" You in the Yakuza(2) or something?"

"What? NO! This is my uniform!" Kudo Shinichi, Detective of the East, Savior of the Japanese Police Force, Silver Bullet of the Shadow Syndicate, a Yakuza leader. The irony was not lost on him.

Apparently it showed on the outside as well. "Don't you smirk at me like that young man! You and your little gang of hoodlums have destroyed my fancy bathroom!" she hissed.

Trying not to look around the very cheap-looking room, or remember the frugal establishment he'd passed through to enter this "study" as Omura-san's assistant called it, Shinichi weakly complemented, "It is a lovely bathroom," He still could taste the candy-shaped soap in his mouth. Stupid ladies room.

"It WAS. Until YOU kicked it with one of those infernal footballs!(3)"

"It was a serial killer…"

"YOU ran out my patrons by 'accidentally stumbling into a stall.'!"

"I was knocked out by the offender's bat…."

"YOU hit the sanitary napkin dispenser with one of your gang bats during the rival gang fight."

"He was about to pull out a gun…"

"And YOU!" Her gaze turned on the Kaito. "I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS FREAKING POSSIBLE TO DO THAT IN SUCH A SMALL SPACE!"

Had they any less will, the great Meitantei Three would have cowered at the insane amount of vehemence that completely overtook over the owner of the shop. Kaito, who had before been subject to levels of anger MUCH higher on a normal basis, with much more, eh, creative threats and means, didn't bat an eye, Pokerface unneeded. A very long rant on his slackerness was on the tip of Honoka's tongue, but she was stunned speechless by what the magician did next.

Using some of the old Kaito charm, he bowed more deeply than needed, somehow making it look rather chivalrous. Taking her (somewhat furry) hands in his, with a hint of the infamous thief's voice he cooed in a tone smooth as velvet, face just a smidgen too close the wart, "My dear Oba-sama, I am terrible ashamed of the actions my comrades and I have committed against your person. An exquisite, sophisticated gentlewoman such as yourself should never be subject to such vexation. Please forgive us our offenses."

The poor woman didn't stand a chance. Her face turned a deep maroon color. "A-ano bozu…." In the time of about 20 seconds of charmed silence on Honoka's part, a wordless exchange took place between the boys.

**Shinichi:** *eyebrow raise*Laid it on pretty think, don't you think?

**Kaito:** It worked, didn't? *smirk* No thanks to you Yakuza-san.

**Heiji:** She called my hat _dingy_….!*sulk*

**Saguru:** *eye roll*Oh, get over it. Crap, she snapped out of it!

One blink, two, and she was back. Her cheeks still had a tinge of red to tinge to them, but had a fairly determined and excited. "Will- will you help make up for it?"

Well, Kaito wasn't expecting that. Seeing that he was now the unelected spokesperson of the group, he asked, "What do you mean, Oba-sama?"

"You're going to help pay for these damages right?"

"Um, we're all in high school."

"Oh." She sat back in her chair. "And here I thought you were a wealthy business man…" the unsaid words left off at the end of the sentence were evident. That certainly sent a shiver up the spine. "I'm sure you all have pretty nice 'allowances' though." The air quotes around 'allowances' were redundant, as her tone indicated enough.

The accused Yakuza leader refrained from adopting a cynic expression. His parents were rather generous with his *ahem* pocket money. But he usually ate out every night, did the taxes, or bought a few too many presents for a certain someone. The rest he blew of mystery novels. Confirmation of his friend's chances were received by a quick glance.

" Then How WILL you pay?"

Plan B. "Are there any favors we can do for you?" Heiji opened his mouth to protest but was felled by Saguru cover his mouth with his hand. "May I ask, what is this business?"

'Why this is the Omura Host Club (4) of course! Where young ladies can be entertained by the company of young men in a suitable environment." A sigh.

Shinichi searched through his Memory Banks, and truth be told, he could recall no other males in the business. And they were of age…. and charismatic…. and attractive… oh dear GOD this could go very, very badly. Backtrack backtrack! "Maybe my parents could fly in?' He wondered aloud- they did owe him.

Honoko waved her hand dismissively. "This isn't old timer hour kid. Who are your parents?"

"Kudo Yuusaku and Yukiko." Oh, how enjoyed it every time, their reactions.

"The-"

"Mmm-hmm."

"Then you're-"

"Kudo Shinichi, tantei. These are my fellow detectives, Hattori Heiji and Hakuba Saguru." He gestured to the two respectively, who bowed upon identification. Then he carelessly waved to Kaito sitting in seat adjacent to him. "And this is my annoying cousin, Kuroba Kaito, illusionist."

"Love you too 'cuz."

Honoka's eyes were now the size of saucers. She looked back and forth between the four, as if they were all entrees and could decide which to devour first. "Can any of your parents stop by?"

Saguru seemed to contemplate this for a moment and confessed, "My parents will not be able to make it. They won't be able to get away from work for some time. How about you, Hattori?"

Heiji managed to stop sulking over the insult of his lucky hat enough to mutter reproachfully. "Nah. Tousan's on an out of region investigation. Won't be back for a while.

"Now that I'm thinking about it… Tousan's probably still sore since I sent his editors after him, I don't have time Kaasan is on a Hokkaido retreat." Before she could ask about Shinichi's uncle, he concluded, "So none of them can come."

"Anyone one else you know that could demonstrate anything?" A vision of four very independant, beautiful, strong, and rather scary girls flashed in their minds.

"No," they lied in perfect unison."

Honoka's face fell into one of a cat in a creamery. "Then I suppose this falls to you four to come up with something to pay me back with favors. And my main issue is finding ways to entertain the young ladies here, other than karaoke and chick flicks. So, what will you do?" Her grin was no less than evil. She put her hands being her head and waited. At this point the boys got in a loose huddle as if for privacy, but none of them apparently had the capability to whisper.

Shinichi pitched the first idea. "I can show them some soccer skills?"

Heiji snorted. "Sure genius. On a stage?"

"It's possible!"

"Maybe, but not nearly as awesome as my Kendo! That's always a crowd pleaser."

Saguru disregarded him with a shake of the head. "With who? No one is here to match you and no one wants to see you beat a straw dummy. Why don't we just do a reading?"

"I swear you're worse than KUDO and he's pathetic-"

"Oi oi….."

"Besides, you have straw enough on your head, and the latter is WELL taken care of already!"

"You deluded prat! Are you in bloody OZ, Cowardly Lion-san?"

Kaito raised his hand to speak, as if still in grade school. The two bickering stopped ling ebought to take a look at one of their Magician Friend's many oddities. That was all the time he needed. "Hey, if Guru-chan Scarecrow, and Hei-chan is Lion, can be the Tin-man?" Kaito grinned evilly and continued in a (perfect, mind you) middle school girl's voice, "Then Shin-chan can be Dorothy-chan and we can all go to meet the Last Wizard of the Century! (5) "He had a hearty good laugh at the others' expense. It was good to be him.

For the third time that week ALONE Shinichi's eye twitched disturbingly from the sheer idiocy of it all. "Shut up you moron! I don't see you coming up with anything!"

"What's there to come up with? He shrugged. "Let's face it. None of you 'Meitantei Three' have any interesting abilities to draw a crowd-unless there's a corpse to be found."

"The only corpse that's gonna be found around here is yours!" countered Heiji.

"Now Hattori, don't get so worked up. Those dark lines on your forehead look dreadful on you. I very well can be you saving grace." he drew back from the huddle at the last, and faced old hag.

"You have something?" Honoka looked pleasantly surprised.

He nodded. "As my talentless yet oddly famous cousin told you, I am well on my way to being a master magician. I trained under my father, Kuroba Toichi- yes, that Kuroba- and am pretty handy with these sorts of things. I would be more than happy to entertain your guest to make amends for my friends' foolishness."

Well, that didn't sound too bad. They could at least help him backstage or something, but they wouldn't have to perform. A couple of hours, a few times a week…

"Marvelous!" the businesswoman dug out a leather-bound planner from one of the desk drawers. She scribbled out something mercilessly from the book with her fountain pen and carefully wrote penned in its place. "I trust you'll make the arrangements?"

"Of course Oba-sama. I just need to confirm with my intended assistants a question concerning costume size-"

Well there went that plan. In unison the three previously inattentive detectives shot upright. " " " HELL NO!" " "(6)

Honoka blinked; Kaito feigned innocence. "Why ever not, my dear friends?"

Saguru faltered slightly "…Because you'll just muck up things even more with your blasted magic!"

Kaito raised his hands in surrender, but his eyes held no repentance. "Why Hakuba, I thought you of ALL people would be interested…?" The not so cleverly hidden innuendo reduced the proud detectives of the East and West to bright red and burgundy hues, both mouths hung open like a- ah, never mind.

Saguru was reddest of all. "Kuroba you perverted son of a-"

"In any case we are a team, and we refuse to… to let Kuroba… kun take the fall."Shinichi spoke through gritted teeth. Kaito was showing his teeth too- in a sadistic smile.

In a rapid movement the manager jumped from her chair and onto the floor and crowed, "Then it's decided! Starting today you are hosts!"

The aura of Impending DOOM swept over the boys in one huge crash. HOSTS? As in host-hosts? Thank goodness they were minors, but to think of the hours of being smothered by the legions of fangirls…the old hag would no doubt advertize them like pieces of meat. The pain, squealing, fighting, love letters, marriage proposals; the list goes on and on. Simultaneously a single thought went through their minds, and was enough to make them all want to whimper in the corner.

_Oh $#!+ if she finds out I'm screwed._

"And just think of the sparkly outfits you get to wear- my how dashing! You would be-"

"We can't be hosts!" they blinked at each other. How many times had they spoken as one today?

Honoka jumped onto her desk to get a better vantage point (how'd she do that so fast with those stubby legs anyway?). Her pointed finger covered by her Mud sleeves as she laughed hysterically. "NO! You have no choice! Either you become hosts or-"

At that moment, in a moment of weakness and desperation, one Hattori Heiji said something that would undoubtedly being the start of a new chapter in his and his friends' lives, a chapter filled with pain, woe, grief and misery. But to the rest of the world, uncontainable elation.

"We can't because we're a band!"

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><p>Bwhahahahahahahaaaaaa! YES! I FINALLY GOT THEM IN ONE! Now you all are going to roast me alive…<p>

I'm sorry! It demanded to be written! Should I continue, if so, give me a song.

Ahahahahah. Heiji, you bumbling idiot. But that's why we love you. But actually it really was all Kaito's fault. As for exactly what what happened... You've been watching 640+ episodes of Detective Conan. You figure it out detective wannabes.

As for the boss, has anyone noticed that there is hardly ANYONE in DC/MK that is just seriously unattractive? Or anyone that is mixed, sides Saguru? And I thought Spain needed some love. So Honoka Omura was born. I actually looked around and her first name means "harmony" so yeah. And her last... Eh that was a personal joke to myself.

A/N

1-Half heritage. Mixed, like Saguru.

2-Japanese badass gang/organization/syndicate. Many branches, very powerful

3-Most every country, save for the U.S. – Soccer. Makes sense, really…

4- where young men or woman go to have drinks and enjoy the company of a host/hostess in a non-sexual environment. For those of you who caught my joke I'm sorrrry it was like RIGHT there!

5-Heh Heh. He's referring to himself, more or less. That's how Kid addressed him self in the Third D.C. movie, The Last Wizard of the Century. Yay for corny jokes!

6-'" " " abc " " " 3 quotes= three people speaking together. I'll use that more in the future.

Until my Next Stupid Drabble!

Ja ne!

~Daydreamer1412


	3. What Would They Do?

To skip my pathetic whining, please go down below the butterfly.

I am SOOOO sorry for the *super* late update. Y'see, I was trying to type up the the ending for this chappie on the internet because word was being moronic, and then the internet completely rejected JUST as I finished the 5th to last paragraph (that's close for me) and I lost ALL the work after the climax. T.T

Then, after I got over my depression over a period of a day and a half, i got back to my laptop and it _wouldn't turn on_ O.o. I'm just struggling to feed my pet rock, Fern, so flat broke. I'm alternating between the home desktop and the library's.

I felt so bad, just leaving you guys hanging there... So this brings me to the next order of business. I put this as an complete. Why? Because it irrated the fladoodle out of me when authors just leave me hanging on these things, and I try to learn from that. No, this doesn't mean I won't update, but because it I'm not sure when I can. So at best, expect another one... oh in a week or so? Worst, a month. Maybe two weeks? I also hope to fix _Cookies and Ice Cream_ around then too, and possibly launch another fic, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

If you guys want I'll leave it as Incomplete to keep your hope alive. You tell me, and I'll probably just do it. And I usually can never resist a suggestion if I can pull it off :D.

**})i({**

I wonder if the butterfly emocon came out. Eh well.

I just want to take the time to marvel at the Hit and Visitor number.** 274 hits and 176 visitors!** You rock! Or rather, the Gosho Boys do ;D.

So as a token of my thanks, here's a super long drabble clocking in at 7,194 with these A/Ns, 5,823 words without. Plus with a little bit of *gasp* fluff! Or at least I think it is... Whatever. So beware, canon couples!

Plus, your reviews were so sweet! It makes my day to see that people like this! And if its bad or if it seems rushed... I'm am sory. I was trying to get it out fast. So to address them individually- (P.S.- i'm new to this, so please tell me if you prefer to be replied to in a PM.)

**Missjennifer54**-san: 2 Chappie streak! Double cookies! I think you'll like this chappie then! I finally got them in there. Glad to see another SxA shipper. The world needs more of their awesomeness, and just of the Gosho Boys together in general.

_Ayumi Kudou_-san_: _Everyone needs their daily does of crack. I humbly offer this as a main course. And yes, yes, yes I wuvles them all! My plan is to take of the site by suffocating everyone in canon filled fluff! Hope you like this chapter!

**ylvglo**-san: Oh thank you! You're making me blush! That made my day! Oh, and this may not be the place, but thank you for reading over and giving some awesome constructive criticism!

fluffyneko-chan: Dude, I know its you! Why are you talking in third person? I mentioned you in _Of Twisted Chains and Delusions!_ Eh well. As I mentioned, this had all of the canon couples. Don't kill me! I'll making it up by fixing Ice Cream and launching that other one! I wuv you!

Well, that was awfully long, huh? Sorry about that -.-.

R&R please! I get inspired!

* * *

><p>Drabblet #3 What Would They Do?<p>

"…And that's how I got my foot unstuck from he hornet's nest." Heiji finished grandly. He glanced around the table as if for applause. His expectant gaze was met with an exasperated sigh, a sardonic grin and slightly amused eyes. "What?"

"Only you, Hattori. Only you." Saguru shook his head and took another sip of tea.

Kaito took the time to attempt took ask a question through his muted laughter. "I didn't even know it was _possible_ to reach the sound capacity of a Tasmanian Giant Morvilin? I thought they were extinct?"

"They are," Shinichi's expression was something of a blend of the magician and British detective's. "But it was most likely his unnatural screaming that imitating it's ultrasonic mating calm ne, Hattori?"

"Shut-up!" was Heiji's none-too-clever first response. "You're just jealous 'cause you would pansy out from the pain, and then faint from the embarrassing rash that would react on your- oh! Food's here!" Much to Shinichi's great relief, Saguru's interested indifference and Kaito's utter disappointment, the walking black hole turned his attention to more impending matters.

The small diner they had visited had wholly met up to group's expectation and its good reputation. It was set on the very edge of downtown Tokyo approaching on the more suburban areas. Although it was not well known, the restaurant very popular with those who knew where to look; it was raw luck that they were able to get a table without reservations. Of course, it didn't hurt their cause being three super awesome teen detectives, plus Magician Friend. A charming little eatery that served a wide variety of foods from different regions and countries, it was much appreciated by the two unusual to the regions. Shinichi had got a rather generous plate of insalata caprese, Kaito was eating something that was unidentifiable even before he took the eyes out and stopped the bleeding, Saguru had a hearty lunch of Sunday roast, and Heiji was inhaling everything but the kitchen sink, from mac 'n cheese to empanadas to takayaki.

Between bites, some quips, jokes, manly boasts of superiority, unrequested magic tricks, logic puzzles and awkward silences, took place at the table. Much as they tried to hid or deny it, these times- the ones were they weren't at each others' throats, causing havoc, or otherwise pissing each other off-were treasured. Verbal rings could be danced in with fellow young men with the same level of intellect, save for a few obtuse moments. The struggles they went through together had only strengthened their bonds. At the end of the day, every occupant at table #7 would know that the others surrounded had his back, through and though. You just had to dig through the idiocy a little.

With their bellies full in and in a slight food induced lethargy, the boys had settled into a comfortable silence. All in all, it was a good day. Their planned afternoon had gone quite nicely really.

Then, of course, all hell had to break loose.

Saguru was in the middle of his detailed and rather entertaining story concerning Grandfather Arthur, a kazoo and Cambridgeshire Castle, when he had to stop short when a middle aged man approached their table with a stack of papers. Upon closer observation, it seemed all the booths had been hit, along with the bar seats. The patrons who received them appeared to be apprehensive and increasingly stressed as they read on.

The man introduced himself as he began to pass the flyers around the table, "Good-afternoon boys," he stacked the papers the boys voiced a polite greeting in return. "My name is Shi-ha Tsumo. I am a bounty hunter." The mystery otakus perked up at the last words. Shi-ha gestured to the flyer.

The man (if you can call him that) that was roughly sketched on the paper was named Butch "the Mangler" Harms."

'_His name just had to be Butch…'_

Butch was leaning more toward gorilla on the gene pool. Standing at 6'7 at 273lbs butch had a long scarlet scar running down the left of his face, a piercing on both eyebrows and lip. He was described to have a long snake running down his beefy right arm, and a Yakuza tattoo on his left bicep, among others. He was of Irish and Japanese decent, and was raised in America. Mental disoriented and having anger issues, Butch was wanted for several crimes.

"If you boys see this man, or know anything of him please contact me." He tipped his hat, straightened the flyers, and moved on the next table.

Once gone, Saguru raised an eyebrow. "Everything from littering to armed theft. While it's great that he didn't do anything worse, it does still surprise me."

"I don't think anyone would be stupid enough to get on this guy's wrong side. It is a bit of a switch from the usual murder though," Shinichi commented, sipping the last of his beverage

Kaito snickered into his U.F.O."Because heaven knows you can't go anywhere without tripping over one."

"It's not my fault that the people of Japan don't have anything better to do."

"Seems everyone fixes their problems by just killing someone nowadays. Hell, there was someone shot at the Wacdonald's drive-through employee for forgetting to put pickles on his ice cream." Heiji shook his head remorsefully.

The magician (albeit hypocritical)l grimaced. "Pickles…on ice cream?"

"He must have not been a mentally stable person." Saguru was turned an interesting shade of green at the thought

Heiji rolled his eyes." No $#!+ Sherlock. Those are nasty together!"

Recovering first from the silence at Heiji's remark, Shinichi reasoned, "At any rate, this guy is probably none too smart. If the police have so much information it's only a matter of time, with such defining features. It's one of those things you don't really need be concerned about."

That was around the time that Karma decided to give him yet another kick in the ass.

A small bell tinkled in the doorway. A tall, robust, mountain of a man had to stoop low to enter the puny restaurant. He had a mean, hardened face with a bad 5'o clock shadow that looked like it was whacked with a surfboard or fell out a car, possibly both. He was dressed in a stereotypical hardcore western New Yorker style; dusted jeans with holes all throughout them, a winter yet oddly sleeveless vest that bulged awkwardly at the mid section and a dark printed tee-shirt that showed off his several tattoos. Such sight that wouldn't be too uncommon on the streets of downtown Tokyo of tourist, but the was in the more or less congested uptown Tokyo, so the clothing was odd to be seen in those parts. Even at a multi-ethical restaurant such as the diner, he stuck out like a sore thumb. The entire vicinity had folded the papers they were handed out just minutes ago and refused to look in his general direction

He sauntered over to the bar, none too far from the boys, ordered a mixed drink with heavy accent. The large group of rowdy college kids reacted in poise that would be expected of their age: Downing their drinks as if they were hazing each other and speed walked to the nearest exit.

"Speak of the devil." Switching his food for a playing deck to manipulate, Kaito muttered, "Detectives… can't take them _anywhere_." In a louder voice he continued, "So meitanteis, what's our mode of action?" he knew they we unneeded words. He could expect an answer in about 14 seconds or so. He got through a shuffle and was working on a cut when Saguru stood, mumbling something about the restroom. Once out of earshot, Kaito eyed his remaining friends. "He does know the bathroom's in the opposite direction, right?"

The Osakan detective took one last fleeting look the British detective retreating figure. Out of the corner of his eye he observed the offender struggled to control his chopsticks and finally opted to just dig at the rice with bare hands. Finally he sighed and waved him closer, "We have to inform the staff," he whispered. "They can be endangered if they do something that may set him off." He frowned. "It may be a bit tougher to contact the police."

Shinichi nodded. "It would be fair to say that the bounty hunters still in the area- It takes a while to get to the station from her, even by car, which he didn't have. He will most likely still on poster duty. But Hattori's right; we can't expect help so soon. The police would probably deem this as too trivial to send in a squad. We would be lucky to even have an undercover agent. You two might as well order something to munch on, it's gonna be a long day."

"Could you three be any louder?" Saguru sat back in his chair, irritated.

Kaito huffed indignantly "Says the guy with the ears of a bat,"

Waving off the routine bickering of the two, Shinichi stated "I want clear everyone out-or at least the women and children- but I think it would be too suspicious looking, do you guys suppose we should just leave things be?"

"Yeah. That would only provoke him." Heiji shrugged.

The blonde gave an affirmative. "Another issue is public safety," he concluded in a lower voice, "That vest of his could hold who-knows-what in it. We don't want a simple bounty chase to turn into a murder, especially not with so many people here." He fished out his share of the money for the bill.

The magician nodded in agreement, though he felt tense. It was hard, waiting, knowing that he could do anything at any moment. Granted, he was used to waiting for opportune moment, it was his livelihood in both his day and then "night job". But in those scenarios, he's always had control over the situation, to a degree. Here, he was virtually powerless, and at the lunatic's whim. Was this how he would be perceived and treated on one of his heist of the Golden Rule hadn't been established? Needless to say, the revelation wasn't pleasant.

Not a crack of his internal stress showed through his masterful Poker Face. On more of a friend's hunch than an actual detective's logic, Heiji relented, "I doubt we need to tell you, but be prepared for the worst possible outcome. We'll be sure to do something then, regardless."

This inwardly cheered up the boy a bit; at least he could do _something_. Completing a particularly flashy trick with the cards, the new found sanguinity spread into the troublemaker's face in the form of a mysterious half-smile. "Aren't I always?"

Conversation grew more causal after that, aside from the excessive swearing from a rousing game of spoons, ichthyophobic tenancies brought out buy the from go fish in the sore losers' retaliation, checking of watches, occasional paranoid glances at the door, and finger drumming. The plan was a success until Butch decided he was done with his banquet of a meal and was leaving.

"Not good…"

"Kuso! We can't let him get away!" hissed Kaito.

Shinichi looked anguished for a moment, and in a split second he dictated, "We'll follow him at a distance. The police are in the area, and we can prevent casualties. Let's split up and- what's wrong?" he asked and Heiji, who looked horrified and he seemed to be standing, with most of the crowd as well.

"Ka-kazuha? Neechan?" he pointed at the now growing throng of people at the bar, in the center of which was Harms. He looked to be rather irratated. He stood, absolutely towering of we the smaller 5'4 and 5'5 heights of two girls, who apparently did not notice the size difference, or didn't care. The one on the left, with long hair touching past her shoulder blades and a pointy-looking bangs looked to be in the middle of chewing out the behemoth. On her right was a slightly taller girl with a high ponytail tied off with a purple ribbon, who was satisfied by giving the fugitive a death glare known to kill small animals and occasionally putting in key points as well.

"What the hell? RAN!" Shinichi dove into the crowd with Heiji right beside him, Kaito and Saguru on their heels.

They pushed their way to the front, only Saguru stopping to apologize. They were just in time to see pull a rather a knife the size of his massive forearm. A good majority of the crowd backed up fast then.

His voice was like rocks in a food processor as he spoke, "So, now that you have me in in the corner, jo-chans, what are you going to do? I'll admit that you're quite brave, or really stupid, to open your big mouths. But, y'see, I have no intentions of getting caught anytime soon, so I'll be leaving now, and you will move. If not..." he tosses the knife into the air and caught it.

"Harms-san," Ran reasoned, ignoring the rude address, "Please be logical. We are in a public restaurant with dozens of witnesses. You will only put more charges on yourself by threatening me and my friend or injuring us. Stop while you are ahead." she advised, using her patient voice often used to coax children into telling the truth.

Butch only laughed hysterically." That will only happen if I get caught. Which I won't. This joint is on the edge of the district! It will take at least an hour from them to get here! No one is here to help you. So move. Now."

Ran gave a quick glance to Kazuha. She nodded ever so slightly. Together they rose their heads high and stood their ground. Kazuha looked him straight in the eye. "As proud citizens of this country, we refuse to do that."

"Why you-" he lunged at the green eyed girl, out for blood.

"KAZUHA!"

From there everything went in slow motion for the boys, only in reality it took no more then a few seconds. Before a slash could be done, the shichidan in Aikido clutched his wrist in a rather painful hold behind his back. When he seemed to be resisting for too long, as the chances were he'd broken out of such a hold, a quick diagonal knife hand to the neck changed his mind. Nothing damaging, but painful and surprising enough for him to loose his grip. She forcefully pushed her away from in disgust.

"Ran-chan," she breathed, never taking her eyes off of her jarred opponent.

"Got it." Ran slid the knife away from the clearing wih her foot, propelling into the crowd at a safe speed, not to hurt anyone. She opened her mouth to say something but was cut off. Butch had recollected himself and went at her instead.

Quickly intercepting the impact by pushing him back in the chest wih the balls of her wrists, the karate champion soon proceeded with a high kick to the head that sent Butch flying into the bar. The crowd stared, wide-eyed. How did these two teenagers just disarm a known criminal that evaded police two, three times older than them? It was mind boggling, to say the least.

Seeing that he was unconscious, or at least dazed for a while, Kazuha began rounding up the oldest and youngest. It was rather difficult to do so through the initial shock and panic. The boys themselves had managed to break out of their slack-jawed stupor and began to move, trying to persuade the crowd to do so. Safety first, reunion later.

Understanding Kazuha's difficulty, Ran ordered, "Elderly and children, leave now and inform the authorities. Everyone else, keep a good distance or-"

"Or what?" Butch sneered, now pointing a small hand pistol produced from his sock into one of the crowd. No one dared to move. "No one move or the pretty one gets it!"

"Akako-chan!"

The said pretty one had dark red hair and stunning features, a true knock-out. Rathering than loooking terrified, or even concerned as her female friends were, she simply glared at at the gun bearer as a nuisance. She locked her eyes on the man, who had no choice to do the same. Her gaze intensified until the point they went from a harsh black to a blood red. Unbeknowst to the ignorants of the crowd, including 7 induviduals, the entire restaurant was blanketed in a veil of black magic to conceal the hypnotism.

In a voice so very alluring and ethereal, and at the same terrifying and nightmarish, the red witch dictated into the mortal's mind to be forever brazened in his subconscious.

**_"Insignificant mortal. You disgust me with your your presence. You WILL lower that foolish mundane weapon of yours__, or I will destroy ever iota of your pathetic sanity and only cease when __you a retain a sliver of yourself to separate you from a beast, if only to live in a nightmare you have not a prayer to awake from. You will live each and everyday as my puppet and bend to my will. Your agony, your grief, your pain, and your suffering will be done to my amusement. Then, when your feeble mind should break, I shall cast the husk of your former being into to the depths of oblivion for Lucifer to torment you as he wishes. Hear me and obey, and your sanity will be resuscitated you sniveling excuse of a human."_**

...Of course, no one heard that. But the those who knew the witch and her abilities, little was left to the imagination.

To Butch, a weak minded mortal driven by lust, found this a lovely idea and would do so. How would pretty people be wrong? Still, he dropped the pistol, as to not anger her pretty face.

Seeing her work was done, Akako let the charm cease and let time run its course.

Everyone was a little disoriented at first, but Butch regained his senses first and somehow he sneaked up near the door behind a messy haired girl had been ushering the last straggler. With his hands positioned like that, there was no doubt he intended to take the petite girl hostage with the threat of strangulation.

Her friends looked up too slow to intervene. " " " Aoko-chan! " " "

"AOKO!"

There was a scream, the sound of impact against skin, a moan, and finally resound crack.

The outcome was so: In the time period 30 seconds, of Butch had internal bleeding all his limbs and head, had a circular bruise in the stomach, some mental trauma and new phobia, and rope like marks on his face and neck.

Aoko needed a new mop.

" " Aoko-chan! " " Ran and Kazuha rushed to her, Akako at calmer stride. Before they could console her Kazuha held the out-cold Butch in a tight hold on the ground, and Ran began tying his limbs in a particularly painful looking knot. Meanwhile Akako ordered for the authorities to be called, the first aid to be brought out, and young and elderly to be brought in from the cold.

After assuring them that she was fine and giving the corpse an experimental poke with the but of the handle, Aoko stood to her full height of 5'2, brushed a bang to the side, and put her trusty mop on her shoulder. "Nobody messes with my friends."

With that brilliant quote of one Nakamori Aoko, the crowed exploded. The girls seemed utterly shocked at the attention, save for Akako, who was already posing for the local news reporter who just happened to be caught in the mess. The girls were soon bombarded with a praise and hero worship. Ran and Kazuha were easily recognized as the Karate and Akido princess of Japan respectively. Aoko and Akako soon followed in popularity with their own attractive and grown women were asking for autographs, men asking for dates, young girls vowing to become just like them, little boys begging to be taught some forms, including a new-founded art of "Mop-Fu". Blushes and shy thank-yous ensued, the girls not so used to so much pointed attention. Though in the back of their minds the thought of large crowds and worship didn't seem to far off- more like a regular occurrence only in a different viewpoint.

An similar circle formed around the girls as the reporters began grilling them for questions, as the subject of TV appearances, news interviews, even a modeling gig were thrown into the mix; the crowd more than happy to watch the impromptu interview with a dull roar of excited chatter of the the everyday heroines. Yet again in the outskirts of the crowd, and just people milling about in general, were the famous Meitantei Three- plus Magician Friend. All were absolutely speechless and dumbstruck; had they been in a cartoon, their jaws would be literally on the floor. Thoughts were broken and unsolved as they tried to wrap their mind around what they just saw.

_'Did she just... Wink?'_

'_...__If I wasn't fast enough to dodge... Holy ****!'_

_'Bad man. Kick. Fall. Win. Shiny Hair. Pretty...' _

_'But the- he was- and the she was- I HAH?' _

It wasn't their most shining moment.

Poor Toichi was probably rolling over in his grade at the utterly pathetic three minutes his son went totally Poke Face- less. After what must have been a personal kick in the ass from heaven itself, the ever suave Kaito snapped everyone back into reality. "Great work there, Meitantei Three. Where's YOUR parade?" That did the trick.

"I don't see your adoring fans either, so shut the bloody hell up!" Saguru growled, instantly snapped out of his trance form the jeer.

Shinichi glared at his cousin and snapped in a low whisper, as bystanders wouldn't overhear. "Yeah, I though you were supposed to be the ever-so-quick witted Phantom Thief, oh wondrous Moonlight Magician-san?"

"What the hell? You're asking the retired mind you, Kaitou Kid to catch a felon? Does anyone else see the irony in this as I'm surround by the * supposedly* ingenious Meitantei Three in the same frigging table?"

"We couldn't let anyone be endangered by brash-spur of the moment actions," Heiji's eyebrow was twitching with a will of its own at this point."You on the other hand, are used to the spontaneous crap, so why didn't you do something when it turned bad?"

"You three deal with this kind of stuff everyday! Shouldn't you be used to acting at the drop of the hat you be used to isn't 'brash' and 'spontaneous' right up you alley though, hotblooded-kun?"

"Not you too! I already have this English prick on me about that!"

"Watch it pillock."

"Will you imbeciles hush up!" Shinichi hissed again, mindful of their escalating volume. "No matter how much Kuroba won't admit he totally failed in reaction time-"

"Oh yeah, just blame the Kaito. Have you detectives have no heart?

"-Will still need to figure why we the rest of us- uh were distracted."

"Hmm..." The boys sunk into their respected positions of deep thought, though it didn't take much thinking. To be fair, they would get in the way, without any formal training... Yeah. They would just get in the way right?

But in fact, the final outcome wasn't even accompanied by a trace of a blush. it was just a simple fact of life that they had come to respect over the years.

Girls are just plain sexy when they're mad and beating the $#!+ out of something. There's no other way to put it. Why ELSE would they piss them off on a regular basis?

"They were already handling it." Heiji bluntly said first, forcing the the square peg into a round hole. His equally hormone cursed buddies nodded in agreement, eyes still closed.

Another moment of this before Saguru grabbed his leather satchel bag. "Let's get out of here." the the reason behind the suggestion was evident.

A universal sigh and unintentional thought commenced as they began migrating toward the side door. _'At least she's safe. But how can I show my face-'_

In a voice much too sweet to be innocent, Akako's voice cut through the restaurant. "Oh look there, it's Saguru-kun and friends!" An uncharacteristic friendly wave was added as salt to the wound as the witch rounded up her overwhelmed friends.

There was a little mental debate in more than two of their minds of just running, but before the marathon could take place, the girls had already arrived and where talking animatedly abut the recent ordeal.

"Oh my gosh Kaito!" Aoko smiled happily, her cheeks still retaining a pretty rose color for the adrenaline rush, "They were amazing! Akako-chan and ran-chan and Kazuha-chan!"

Ran shook he head mosestly. "But Aoko-chan, you were the one who knocked him out in the first place!"

"Yes, but you two got the weapon from him!"

"Maybe, but I still the Akako-chan was the best." Kazuha turned to the witch. "How did you convince him to drop the gun anyway?"

"Oh, just a little... persuasion. It was effortless really." On an afterthought, she added, "You guys were good too."

"Thanks!"

"But Aoko-chan was the one who came up with the plan in the first place!"

"No, Aoko was nervous. What if you two got hurt? And Akako-chan was never supposed to be in danger"

"But neither of us did and you knew we wouldn't! Kazuha and I have been in a lot more desperate situations, right?"

"Yep! You two were awesome, even without any formal training."

"Oh, batting Kaito around with the mop was training enough."

"Ah." feeling their conversation had gone on long enough, Kazuha turned to the her fellow Osakan, nearly beaming. "I think I know why you get so excited now Heiji! Like, I know it isn't good for people to be in trouble-"

"No, really?"

"Aho! I don't mean it like that! But that rush- it was amazing! So what are you guys doing here?" she inquired, missing Akako's snicker.

"What does it look like aho?" he rolled his eyes to the ceiling.

"I mean, did you see it?"

"W-what do you mean?"

"Hah?" Kazuaha's head tipped to the side slightly, as if she were a confused puppy. Secretly Heiji found the gesture adorable, not that he'd ever admit it. Espeically not with a very familiar look dawning on her face. He sneaked a glace at his friends, who, like him, had a mix of embarrassment and guilt written all over their face. If they were that obvious, what hope did he have?

Meanwhile, the two near twins' expression of bemusement, Akako's of smug interest, morphed into irritation and amusement, but the later overcame the former. Aoko and Ran eyed Kazuha, who did the same, coming to some silent agreement. The boy's silence was answer enough for them; now it was just time to have a little fun. Akako opted to sit back and watch the show. Should prove amusing.

Suddenly Ran was struck by some motherly instinct and worriedly examined Aoko's arm. "But are you sure you are honestly okay though, Aoko-chan? Butch-san did get a few hits, didn't he?"

The messy haired girl nodded, her hands tightened around the now broken handle until her knuckles were white. "Yeah, it's just a little bruise-I didn't bother with the paramedics. But I just feel really bad. I only got in your way and I-" her voice cracked. "I- got scared."

"It's not your fault Aoko-chan!" Kazuha snarled, though her ferocity didn't match up with her pained demeanor. It a softer tone she repeated. "It's not... How could that stupid Butch-san do that to us! It's not fair!" Kazuha screamed, not caring that a couple of her adoring fans were now looking at her like an a grade-A lunatic. "This day was supposed to be special for the four of us to get out! We just shaving lunch and then he had to come in and scare everyone..! Every friggin time! It's not fair!" she turned her head away, curing under her breath.

"I think this is my fault than anyone's. I was the one who suggested we do something in the first place... We- I was stupid to do that- what if someone got caught in the crossfire, like poor Akako-chan!" Ran spoke in a dark undertone

Akako's claret eyes momentarily peaked out from her light hair. For once the witch seemed utterly speechless. She was quaking and hugging herself tight.

The karate champ glared at her hands, as if they were soaked in blood. "First I dare to talk to him and then Kazuha-chan was attacked, then Aoko-chan, then Akako-chan! All these lives of people! I nearly almost cost them all! It's a wonder how we got out of this_ little_ problem!"

Aoko burst into tears. The two martial artists ceased their tirading to rush to their girl friend's aid. After a lot of coaxing and assurances, Aoko confessed through barely intelligible sobs, "Aoko- Aoko was terrified! She wasn't brave! Not like you three! She was -hic- alone and and she though that...!" Another round of tears. Akako at this point was shuddering violently now.

During all of this badly disguised guilt trip, the boys had done absolutely nothing- no denials, apologies, comforting words, hugs- nothing. And for the life of them _they could not figure out why_. The entire little episode the girls had played out was almost laughable with how thick they were putting on what with the anxiety and quivering and tears and whatnot.

They_ should_ be laughing their asses off at their pitiful attempt to make them feel bad about anything- they were too awesome for that, right? But instead they were planted there. It was almost like when they were first watching them confront Harms, only this was intensified for some reason. As if in charmed like snakes from snake charmer's tune, they hanging on to every word, the guilt trip crashing in at full force. They were caught, hook line and sinker, and it was sad. Would it make things better to mentally admit that they were adorable when pouting or crying? No. No it wouldn't.

Wait, wait, they were talking again!

"W-what do you want to do to fill this empty hole in your chest from almost facing certain death, Aoko-chan?" At this point the girls had more or less given up the facade, appeased with watching the boys struggle with their internal conflict. They looked downright_ constipated_.

A sniffle. "I don't know; I don't deserve it. But I was hoping to show you guys this one nice manicure place Akako-chan and I went to, and then this dessert place, but it was too expensive!" she mournfully wiped a stray tear from her cheek.

Kazuha slammed her fist in a nearby pillar coincidentally close to the boys and cried out in lament, "Oh woe is us! Whatever shall we do?"

The spell broke, and after one blink, two, the boys were back. "Ano-" Shinichi's squeaked in a tone reminiscent to that of a certain 7 year old. His hand was on his back pocket, Heiji was digging in his lucky hat for the change he always kept up there, and Saguru was writing a check out for something unpronounceable with the sheer number of zeroes it contained. Kaito shook his head. He would normally mock them mercilessly for this, but considering that his spare fake Pandora was behind his back, ready for the taking to be sold, he wasn't one to poke fun. The would owe him for this though.

"OH MY GOD HE'S DEAD!"

The Meitantei Three started, and then raced out the door, shouting hurried apologies and goodbyes. All who was left was Magician Friend, who at the expect gaze of his audience, took a a wide showman's bow, Cheshire Cat grin showing through and through. With a finger to his lips and a mischievous wink to Aoko, he disappeared iin a poof of smoke.

The girls collectively blinked, and in that split moment they all felt something encolsed tightly in their hands.

"Kaito," Aoko smiled gratefully the the three stems of sky blue forget-me-nots with a stuffed little bluebird in its center. "Baka..."

The remaining three girls were more surprised at the flowers in their hands. On the orchid, tiger lily, red iris were Ran, Kazuha, and Akako's name's respectively. Along with that, but they realized a small note in their pockets from the master magician (how the hell did he do that anyway?) explaining how the flowers were from the the boy's behalf, and the stuffed dog, rabbit, and snake were all their doing, and that he stole them (to return later of course) in case of a situation such as the previous. He could have always been lying, but their penmanships and writing styles were innate to their personalities. Each personal note conatined a annoing yet thoughtful message on them. All blushed lightly.

With a bit of a blush of her own, Aoko opened the note addressed to her clasped to the bluebird.

_Aoko- _

_I totally have to give you props on your fake crying. Absolutely brilliant. But I just had to get the guys out of there, before they suckered themselves broke. You guys got pretty damn close though. I know you've been wanting to get your nail's done at Horoshino's for a while. French tips with flowers, right? Take this- don't worry about it, and spend the rest on whatever. Preferable blue panties with white lace, but you know that's just me. Enjoy! I'll see you tommorow, kay?_

_-Kaito_

"Anyone up for some cake?"

* * *

><p>I wholly and entirely blame ABC's <em>What Would You Do? <em> for same/simlar scenario took place, and they we acting all confused as to why no on e stepped in directly, and I was all "what the duck?" Why would actually do that? So of course, being the fanatic, I am, D.C./M.K. sneaked it way into my thought pattern. This was originally for the S.H.K. trio (I'll come up with a clever name later) but I decided to add Saguru and Akako in. Turned out that was just I needed!

Yep. I would say it was OCC (no, really?) but it could be argued that this entire series is. Hakuba and Hattori friends... Pfft! Cookies for whoever can figure out the actually reason why they didn't do something! I made it pretty obvious, but I wanted to do that, since this was a first. But hopefully it was still acceptable. This was the first one that I actually used my notebook for, instead of off the top of my head.

That was also my attempt at fluff, which I am now demoting to blantant affection. I dunno. Ive been looking at this thing for months- I'm past knowing now. But of course Kaito and Aoko had to dominate yet again.

The Gosho Girls finally made their debut! Whoot! My first time writing for Kazuha and Akako. Akako's was the most fun though, since I totally got to screw around with the boys on this one, even if I'm still trying to figure out the limitations of her powers. Heh heh. Hate to see her really mad... And of course they just had to get along beautifully while the boys were arguing *again*. I do love their little fights!

Although this one is long, I'm feeling pretty shaky. B- at best. I'm considering just taking this chapter out, possibly.

On the bright side though, I think I may try to fix Cookie and Ice Cream for Spinster's- I mean Valentine's Day. I'll put it here, since people seem to notice it more often, then drag it back there, if I can.

Until my next stupid drable,

Daydreamer1412

~Omake~

"You three had better come up with something nice for me. I had to throw my voice to cover your butts from being bankrupt and- what the hell?" Kaito stopped short. There, in the middle of the street in broad daylight, with a now growing crowd of bystanders were his friends, the detectives, huddled over a bloody mess that wouldn't occur unless they had been back up over seven times.

"Cause of death was needle injection, and body was mulitated buy a blunt weapon so after death..."

"Possibly cyanide poisoning, indicated by the almond scent in the air... Dead for a while."

"Time of discovery-3:48.71 PM. Time of death, 3:28.49-3:38.05 in the afternoon. Time of mutilation- 3:40.00-3:45."

"Oh, Kuroba you're here."

"Never mind, go call Megure-keibu and round up the witnesses!"

"Oh, and could you leave those leftovers here? I'm starving!"

"What? We just ate and we're at a murder scene and you're hungry?"

"Shut up! And hurry!"

"Yeah, thy're getting away."

Kaito heaved yet another heavy sigh. How was it even...

_'They'll all look very charming in pink pinstripes tomorrow.' _


	4. SuperDrabblet: Beautiful Night

So I lie. Whatcha gonna do, sue me? Eh, considering that I haven't done a disclaimer to date... We're all otakus here, right?

Since this is the first big holiday that's big for a fic spike since I've been here, I thought I should drag my pathetic contribution to the mix! For the occasion, I've made this sappy,to my taste, and all romantic and all that dumb couples junk. So instead of a normal drabblet, this is a SuperDrabblet! I feel like Sailor Moon O.o. I guess I'll call them this when it's a particularly important holiday, or I make up a holiday because I can't wait to get it out. The reason why this is special is because, um, they sing. Of course, this means Cookies and Ice Cream will be pushed back, but it will pop out sometime soon.

This was too cute to post as a one shot. Or, at least for me. this could be downright moronic to some, but this is my own special brand of idiocy. Besides, this might attract more reviewers! Please take this time on Spinster's-I mean Valentines Day to show me you care! They make my day!

... I have no idea on how to flirt as a girl, never mind whatever goes on in the opposite sex, so bear with me.

**})i({**

It came out again :D

Right now, I would like to mention that I reached a New Years Resolution of mine last chappie! 10 reviews on a single story! My gosh, I'm so happy this has gotten so much support! Thank you for all the lovely comments- they make my day! So this first SuperDrabble in my career's dedication goes to **missjennifer54**-san, _Ayumi Kudo_-san, Smithy-chan, **ylvglo**-san, neko-chan, _Sherry Angel_-san, and **jazzmonkey**-san! Thank you for all your kind word of support! This one goes out to you guys!

_SherryAngel_-san: Yep! I love those girls do much! I hope you liked the previous chappie, and I think you'll like this one very much!

**jazzmonkey-**san: First reviewer! Crab legs for you! (hopefully you're not a vegan, if so, cookies) Aww thanks so much for the praise! I'm glad to see you still approve! That was really fun, writing them all absolutely gobsmacked and almost completely getting ripped off. I think Kaito Kid himself would be proud. I don't know why I keep making the boys suicidal, ticking off the girls. One of these days, when they freaking snap, I'll be happy that I was nice to them. Hope you like this chapie! It has more more GG action, only with some more blatant affection!

**Missjennifer54**-san: You're too nice! I seriously wasn't feeling it, but I feel a lot better now! I always wanted and old fashioned butt wuppin with the girls since movie ten. How I wish it was Aoko who threw the mop. *sigh* He really should give the girls more action time. Akako was the most fun to write, because I got to twist around the pathetic mortals mind for my own sick amusement. Not so much psychical, but mental. Any suggestions on her power limitations would be nice. Cos If I had it my way, she'd just turn back Conan and locate Pandora XD.

R&R! Oh, and I don't own the song featured in this. That belongs to... Eh, you'll find out. But its not mine. The jury's still out on D.C. though.

* * *

><p>SuperDrabblet #1 Beautiful Night<p>

All in all, their school kinda sucked.

Lunches were only a hour long, school ran till four thirty, uniforms were constricting and in simple colors, and... the meatloaf was _always_ lukewarm.

And... And... It was freaking perfect. The school started at nine bloody thirty, the uniforms were stylish and interchangeable, and the grade A caviar was _always _at the perfect temperature. Their sports and clubs were undefeated in their entire region, the teachers were actually intelligent and world renowned,and the bathrooms. So unnaturally clean; the floors and wall free of water and other fluids. A guy could appreciate that, you know.

So nice and rich that in fact the famous Meitantei Three (Plus Magician Friend) with all their acclaimed unadulterated awesomeness got full scholarships just to grace them with their presence. Or at least, that's what the letter said. With great ease, they excelled in all classes, electives sports and clubs; in no time at all they four of them (three forcibly) rose to the highest level of academic and social status as the brain, limbs, eyes and heart of the student council.

The Four Geniuses, as they were called by the majority of the school's population, male and female alike. However, the school approved fanclubs (it was beyond them how so many of them were actually approved without the president's awareness.) preferred different means of addressing the boys. other than having two or three individual followings and their traditional foursome, some clumped the pair or trio most favored. Among these were _Cat and Dog, Drs. Dolittle, Tantei Three, Shabalabadingdong, Sherlock Homies, Dual_ _Eclipse_, and _Beyond the Hills_, among others. The jury's still out on which one was which.

Oddly enough, though 97.836% of the female population had or was having a crush on one of the boys at some point or another ever since they came to the school, very few girls confessed or asked them out; only the most outspoken, of that. It was down to 15 a month for all of them. Not that they missed the worship- they heard plenty at lunch and break in their little otaku packs. But whenever they had the glorious chance to be left alone with one of the famous youths, they became very cautions-afraid almost, looking behind their backs or keeping the greatest distance away from them even an acceptably friendly one. That was one mystery none of them would every figure out.

So, long story short, the were all known for the brilliance especially after that last of the Syndicate was burned off. They were head of the school. Teachers loved them. Students adored them. They were the all around cool guys on campus.

Then why, for the love of Kami, were they doing Singing Valentines?

They were freaking Japanese! This isn't tradition at all! This was the girl's day to give chocolate to guys, and the deed would be repaid if they accepted a month later on White Day. That was always how it was done. Certainly never important enough for the school to be involved.

Apparently the Westen principal thought it was 'Awas fun and creative way to express platonic love from student to student!" It was a pretty simple tradition from the Americas a a few countries in Europe. A week prior the Feburary 14th, the organizers would begin selling Singing/Dancing/Sonnet Valentines parodied or straight. For a low price, the could choose to send a candy with note, accompanied with a bear for a few more yen, to any student of any year on Valentine's Day. All day the performers would skip class and come to each classroom at random times to present the valentine to usually three to four girls. Just walk in announce who they were for, sit them on a designated chair at the front of the classroom and preform to them and the entire class.

It seemed like a fun fundraising event. That's why they approved it. Besides, the drama department seemed to be ecstatic about it. Unfortunately for the boys, the theatre class one the Shakespeare Festival regional, and was going to nationals for a month. Which meant that someone had to fill in for their already paid for valentines. So of course both the choir and the dance team had alreday benn shipped out to the preform of other schools, and the band was too busy in preparation for the Music Festival to participate.

In a last ditch attempt to save the meager earnings that they didn't even need, the principal decided that if any one of the approved talent show acts helped out, they would receive a huge extra credit bonus to their weakest class. Also, each elective need to come up with one act.

Student council was an elective. They were the act. The Four Geniuses themselves would actually swoop down onto Earth and sing- sing you your valentine, in all of the their divine sexiness. It was every fangirl's dream.

In retrospect, maybe there should have been a little warning bell when the "random" drawing had all four of their names on it, with their act chosen theme written on it, with particularly feminine kanji. In their sad defense, it was eight in the morning, they had a long night at their *ahem* night jobs, and they were out of coffee. How could any human brain function without such simple needs? But that was irrelevant. They were screwed, and it was all their damned attractiveness is what put them in the situation at hand.

The song they had had been assigned was fair enough- romantic without being overly sappy or meaningful. Should appease the crowd. The costumes and props were a bit hindering, but easy enough to overcome. The other acts were very good, but once seeing the long list of classrooms and recipients two things were confirmed. That they were fan favorites (no, really) and that they really needed to keep their official documents under lock and key.

As the day went on, the initial embarrassment, shyness and overall irritation so evaporated into a greater confidence and charisma that translated wonderfully into the crowd and receivers. It wasn't so hard; Hell, they did this every week. All of them had developed a lovely Poker Face for onstage. While their insides said the exact opposite of what they were thinking, that every expression lyrics seemed from the heart. They were talented musicians, if nothing else. It almost got was fun once they got used to it, if not tedious. It wasn't that bad. What could possibly go wrong?

"Happy Mardi Gras, everyone!" Kaito said, strolling into the room with a small table in hand, electric candles in the other.

"Happy Mardi Gras, Kuroba-kun!" The majority of the females in the classroom chirped in unison, slightly confused.

Heiji came in with a white sheet and some silverware, Shinichi and Saguru behind him. "In addition to that, Happy Valentines!" Shinichi greeted as he put the keyboard faced toward the four chair s lined.

"Happy Valentines, Kudo-kun!" the girls sighed.

"Hey." Heiji gave a small waved as he asked the blonde, "Oi, Hakuba, you got the food?"

"Hey Hattori-kun!"

Saguru rolled his eyes at Heiji after greeting the populace. "Hello. Why am I not surprised you're most concerned about that?"

"Hello Hakuba-kun!"

"Don't worry I've got it!" He pulled out an envelope from his back pocket "Who wants to do it this time?"

"I will."

"M'kay. Is it all set up?"

"Yep. We're ready."

After a last glance at each other, the baize atmosphere vanished, replaced by a much more professional one. Hand Kaito took their places behind the chairs with their backs turned, while was Shinichi bent over the keyboard, changing the setting to piano.

Saguru cleared his throat and straightened his tie. With more grandeur than need he announced in an even drawl , "The student council would like for you to allow us to transport you to the city of love, as your loved ones have requested. We have a very special night planned for..." He opened the envelope, and almost in true Grammy's fashions, took a ridiculously long time to just spit it out. Rather than for suspense, it was really because he couldn't speak. Felling a lot less suave than he did a moment a go he managed to announce, his voice catching on the first syllable. "K-Koizumi Akako, Mouri Ran, Nakamori Aoko and Toyama Kazuha."

Their school really, _really_ sucked.

Immediately Shinichi's head snapped up, at the second name called. Almost simultaneously both Kaito and Heiji froze as the second and third name were called-Poker face be damned. A dust rose soon rose on the lighter skinned boys's cheeks, a deep maroon for their darker skinned friend. How did they not see that coming, what with the crappiest luck in the world.

On the flip side, the above mentioned girls was being forcibly pushed to the front of the room. All were a brighter crimson than Akako's hair. Against all the franstic protests, they were seated by the school girls, since the boys seemed to be in a perpetual daze. Once up there was no going back. And all of them violently swore to get whoever did this, the nastiest curses coming from Aoko.

The impromptu stage had indeed been transformed into a small nighttime cafe, so like the ones they visited in real life. Four chic little chairs had been curved to the audience behind a neat little table simply set with a spotless white tablecloth with three little candles on candle holders, flickering realistically with all its artificial worth. The boys themselves were dressed in loose black trousers and a black vest with a varying colored shirt underneath: Red, green, yellow, blue. Their ties were a contrasting white. They seemed to attempt to comb their hair neatly which worked out just fine for Saguru and Shinichi. Heiji tried and failed and didn't try again- it was all they could do to make him take off his hat. Kaito didn't even try taming the beast. Yet the latter pair somehow managed to pulled of as hot instead of bedhead.

Ran was seated to the farthest left from the audience's point of view, coincidentally closest Shinichi's profile at the keyboard, Kazuha and Aoko were sandwiched in the middle while Akako had the farthest right, near Saguru. After what felt to be the majority of had sat down and were certain that none of them were to be mopped, beaten or spontaneously combust. something clicked for the boys. The fact the girls were not running away as they very well could. And while still horrifically embarrassed, they still wanted to seem interested and determined to see the act; most likely to find the culprit. It was almost a direct challenge: _So, are you gong to entertain me, or aren't you?_

The boys were never ones for losing.

Accepting the unspoken challenge, Kaito gathered himself and slid out in the front of the table, in all of his handlebar mustached glory and bowed. "_Bonne soirée, mon chères belles femmes_." He addressed the girls in a perfect accent, though he was really only looking at Aoko. "Today's special is Singing Valentines, with a side of romance! _P__ianiste!"_ He threw in a two short claps.

His cowlick quivered slightly as Shinichi flashed his best debonair smirk (which seemed oddly familiar somehow) at Ran, which sent her heart jackhammering far more than she would have liked and rose yet another flush to her cheeks. What in the world was he doing? Did he realize..?

Shinichi was quite fond of the song. He was even more fond of the recognizing blush that came to Ran's cheeks. This was the first piano piece she had ever heard him play since over a decade. He had to admit, she looked downright adorable when she was befuddled. That's why it was so fun do do it. He technically could plead innocent, and that he was just doing his part; but again, it was only fun when she knew. And the threat of death was over him.

Thankful that he was about a foot away, with a flourishing wrist movement that was more for show that for actual function, Shinichi began the tune after yet another superfluous hair flip. Sweet, melodic and warm, he grinned and kept a steady eye contact with Ran as the notes flew from the instrument.

The intro completed, Heiji and Saguru began to gather some ingredients and utensils. Meanwhile, the now mustached Kaito opened his mouth to start of the very beautiful night, using his perfect stage presence to make virtually everyone swoon, one girl in particular.

_"Oh this is the night,_

_It's a beautiful night _

_And we call it Bella Notte..." _He sang in his smooth tenor. A mischievous grin grew on his lips assuring all of those associated that disaster was inevitable. He positioned himself to the back of the seats, swaying to the music as well, accidentally on purpose manipulating Aoko's shoulders to do the same while in her dumbstruck stupor, all brain functions stopped.

In the few moments Heiji got to observe the two cousins irregular flirtatious behavior, he allowed himself as small shake of the head. The narcissistic dolts. Poor nee-chans, really. They were tomatoes at this point, all flustered and shy. It was almost endearing. Those two were probably using this to get back at them last week for the diner. Hell, he was still kind of pissed at Kazuha for making him dig in his_ hat_-the most sacred object in his existence- cause she just had to go and do that dumb shiny-sad thingy with her eyes.

Obviously those two had personal vendettas, or grew some backbones. Whatever they were, he'd take this time to even the score. Chances were that he'd have to keep the passionate atmosphere going. Besides, he needed to teach her a lesson. No Aho would dare best this Hattori Heiji! So in a sonorous mix between baritone and bass, he continued the melody.

_"Look at the skies_

_They have stars in their eyes_

_On this lovely Bella Notte." _He sighed and stepped back to retrieve the mixing bowl, enjoying the discombobulated expression on the pony tailed girl.

Kazuha had been shaking her head ever since the first lyric uttered from her childhood friend. Where in the _hell_ did he learn sing like that? She already felt safe enough in not sharing the same fate as her counterparts; the fact that Heiji was as dense as a metal brick when it came to romance matters was a reliable insurance. But since when was it so deep and sultry and, dare she think it, sexy? It was a sucker punch to the gut. Only it was an oddly nice feeling one. That alone was enough to stun her into a embarrassed silence.

_"Side by side, with your loved one"_

Saguru threw another teddy bear into the large ingredient bowl as he sang the second verse. Instead of the traditional spaghetti, their dish consisted of sparkles, candy hearts, cards and stuffed animals, in order to make a proper valentine. Heiji was supposed to be helped him and mixing it, but he apparently was too preocupied humming along and stealing none-too-subtle glances-turned-stares at Kazuha. The twin cousins weren't going to be of much help. How many times is it possible to wink without giving yourself an eye spasm, or play with hair not without twisting it into an impossible knot? He threw the last item in and began stiring.

It was beyond his understanding, and that was saying something. He wondered if the trio of idiots even realized that this would never sell as platonic love to the audience- this was supposed to be a lighthearted parody! But at least it sold, and very well. Their blatant affection bestowed an overall enchanting affect on the room and girls. A little quixotic in his opinion, but effective without a doubt. Soon his thoughts turned to the one person in the room whose attention has been soley trained on him alone.

She had been still sitting there, expression unchanged from on of curiosity, as if uncertain what his approach was. Even if he didn't have an entire childhood to understand and grow closer with the pretty witch, he was man enough to admit that he was greatly attracted to her, and it was long overdue that he made a move. He just had to be sure it was the right one. Now was as good time as any to find out. Summoning a bit of courage, and ignoring his slightly flushed cheeks he sang in a strong baritone, laced with pure emotion.

_"You'll find enchantment here_

_The night will weave its magic spell"_

A magic spell. How apt. Akako couldn't help but return the blonde's shy smile. His melody pleased her much more than she thought it would. Instead of erotic or desperate like the swarms of males that surrounded her on a daily basis. For some reason, _his_ attention, _his_ shyness,_ his_ smile was much more sincere and candid that it was almost refreshing contrasting as it was to her own persona. It made a world of difference to her, and soon the small grin morphed into a rare, genuine smile.

Kaito almost pouted when it was his turn again. He was perfectly content with playing with Aoko's hair, enjoying her stuttered protests. She would probably kill him later for this, but he could help it. She was so cute sometimes that he just wanted to pick her up and hug her. That couldn't atone for any of this,- it was completely out of character, but maybe it was the setting, his natural spontaneous impulses, or average raging teenage hormones. He rose still, but didn't go so far. With his mouth next to her ears, magically projecting so the audience to hear, and with a playful and teasing note to it, he his melodic voice cut through to silent air, save for the piano,

_"When the one you love is near."_

Completed with the concoction, Saguru and Heiji with a bit of prodding, back-stepped to either side of the table just as Kaito rose to his full height. Simultaneously they closed their eyes and let their arms and heads drop, listening to the lulling harmony reach its zenith of passion. Together, the four blended in a perfect unity as one entity, one melody, one voice, they serenaded the last of the worries of all present; for just one fleeting minute, everything bad i outside the small haven of the classroom disappeared, and all was well in the world.

_"Oh this is the night_

_And the heavens are right_

_On this lovely Bella Notte_

_This is the night _

_It's a beautiful __night _

_And they call it Bella Notte _

_Look at the skies_

_ they have stars in their eyes_

_On this lovely Bella Notte_

_Side by side with your loved one, _

_you'll find enchantment here_

_The night will weave its magic spell_

_When__ the one you love is near._

_Oh this is the night_

_And the heavens are right _

_On this lovely Bella Notte__"_

The symphony concluded. In that one panicked moment, three things dawned on the boys: That their action today could very well follow them for the rest of their life, that they may not even make it to what would be their normal age of dying, and that they forgot to present the valentines. Wait...$#!+!

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Meaning each word, down on one knee, each young man revealed the valentine from under a silver platter. There, a small chocolate arrangement surrounding a cute little teddy bear hugs its chocolate tight resided, sitting on and attached note. With shaky hands and a quiet thank you whispered-or squeaked as it might have it- the girls accepted the valentine.

The event at a close, the room nearly imploded. Screeched girly screams and sighs of content ensued. Wedding congratulations were passed as well, and instead of angry denials and violent threats, they were met with an awkward silence and muttered curses. Not exactly brilliant, but an improvement, nonetheless.

Most inportantly, they were even-possibly up a few points. And there was a little self satisfaction too.

However, the four spotlighted girls couldn't really blame their waiters when they took off nearly running out the door 7 seconds into the cheers, leaving all of their- oh wait, there it went. Poor dears's heads looked ready to explode, which didn't match up with the goofy, almost moronic smiles on their faces.

That was... sweet. There was no other way to put it. Embarrassing? Heartfelt? Sexy? Infuriating? Moving? Ridiculous? Annoying? Enlightening? All of the above, and more were part of the girls conflicting emotions. Sweet was the one that triumphed. No matter how embarrassing, heartfelt, sexy, infuriating, moving, ridiculous, annoying and enlightening their counterparts were, they were their idiots. That what made it special.

This would have been amazing blackmail fodder, but concidering how 4 out of 4 of them completly melted, they very well couldn't do anything without shooting their own foot. And, considering how many kids were on the newspaper, intercom, news and tabloid team, they were doomed to be the highlight of the week for the rest of the long school year. Then again, they were already popular for some reason in the school, so it wouldn't be that differnt, right?

Of course it would. Something in the air had changed, and for the better. Instead of the approaching storm, the feeling came like a cloudy night- the ones you knew would hold the promise of a rainbow before long.

So quietly they returned to their respected seats, ignoring the cacophony of their fellow students, and promptly entered individual worlds of darkness. It was a little hazy and hard to make out, but was getting clearer and clearer by the second, revealing the constant stars and moon.

A beautiful night, indeed.

* * *

><p>I am a complete and utterly shameless sap.<p>

But this is pretty bad, even for me. OOC, random fluff drowning.. The bad things the accursed 14th do to me. I promise the next one one be as nearly as patheticy sappy. I'll returtrio the tried and true Bromance of epic proportions, sprinkled with a little crack humor and adventure.

This is... A bit of with fulfillment, I'll admit. What else would you expect from a lonely Spinster such as myself? But at least I gave it to the girls- they should be happy. I for one found this cute, but again, I'm a sucker for this kid of frilly crud. I don't know if it would be appreciated.. and if I should get a better lock for my house. O.o.

To be honest, BOATS fic, actually. In advanced drama, we actually had to do Singing Valentine one year. I and three other girls actually sang this very song, put candies in a bowl, stirred it, and presented it on a tray under a lid. I actually had Kaito's part as the waiter.. In all MY mustached glory in all. It was a lot of fun. Course none of this were this epic, so its almost an insult mentioning our puny act -.-.

Also a bit of a test run to see how I felt writing singing if I ever wanted to continue the Crime and Punishment scenario. I've come to like it. Thought it would take a lotof research. And the girls made another appearance! Whoot whoot!

Come to think of it I pretty much mentioned all of the previous chappies, haven't I? And pretty much gave you all a short cliffie, ne? I should probably mention this now, but this won't have any affect on future drabblets... I think. It would make this weird- besides, the awkward stage is the most fun to write! But no BF/GF for now. Sawry.

I made Kaito mention the under appreciated Mardi Gras holiday, a major Creole holiday fell on the same a Spinsters Day this year. I'm proud of my heritage, and it kinda makes me loose hope in the new generation of decision makers not even try to learn what it is. So through all that idiotic fluff, you learned something!

Just realized the chef in Lady and the Tramp was Italian, and I made Kaito speak (hopefully) dececent French. Hmm. Oopsie! I blame my ditzyness and Google Translate.

So this really was a SuperDrabblet, huh? Singing, G.G. fulfillment (I DARE you to self insert!), BOATS, new narration strategies, and chappie recollection. I'm sure Usagi is proud. I am too, mainly cos I started this on like Friday, which is super late for me. Hopefully the grammar isn't to atrocious.

Until my next Sappy Drabble,

~Daydreamer1412


	5. Paper, Scissors, Cannonballs?

Not dead! Been super busy. Just wanted to get this out since I've been off for a while, so I do hereby apologize for this... thing.

**})i({**

I recently realized it was proper etiquette to reply to reply by PMing... But since I'm really late I'll just do it here!

Lessi-kun- Aww, I'm glad you liked it! Yep, I love me some funny fluff! Hope you enjoy the crack XP

**jazzmonkey-san-** Ah. a fellow sap. Nice to know I'm not alone. That's my fav genre too! Thank you so much I praising the originality- that's something i really strive for :D. Hope you'll still like me after the crack! XP

**Missjennifer54-san-** Oh, my thank you! I also want to thank you for this continuous support! Yeah, that was a really fun part to writing. Oh the things a fangirl will do... Forgive me the crack! XP

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><p><strong>C<strong>R_a_**CkE****d!** Drabble #4- Paper, scissors, cannonball?

"Once, twice, shoot!"

"Once, twice, shoot!"

"Once, twice- OI! no guns barou!"

"Geez, can't you take a joke?"

Shinichi scowled at the dark skinned Osakan, who was snickering loudly.

"This is no joke! 2 out of three!"

"You're on!"

The two great detectives of the West and East, saviors of the Japanese police force, Hattori Heiji, and the Kudo Shinichi. Together with some help, they had taken down the Shadow Syndicate no easy task; they had both confessed to their longtime loves, and were currently fresh out of high school graduates. Life was probably at their highest for they boys-no young men. So why were they settling a dispute via rock paper scissors?

This was the main question British detective, third of the Three Meitantei Hakuba Saguru, and the Three Meitantei's Magician Friend, Ex phantom thief Kuroba Kaito wondered, their exasperated expressions nearly matching. Aside from trafficking the gobsmacked public from the spectacle the two idiots they called friends we making, the two former Edoka class B students entertained themselves by watching them; this kind of amusement usually didn't come free. Sitting on the chairs and table Kaito had conjured out of nowhere with a beverage in hand for each, they opted to comment on the miniature war between their veiled snickers.

"And here I thought you were the infantile one," Saguru chuckled,

"Why Guru-chan, you offend me. More sugar?" he slid the sugar bowl closer to the blonde, who accepted it gratefully. "But at least this time I can watch them get humiliated without any effort on my part."

Saguru's eyes drifted towards the clouds before returning to earth again. "Yes, I'm sure torturing the closest people you associate with must be tiring."

"Sad, but true. It's trying to be so awesome, but SOMEONE has to do it. I'm willing to conset fo the good of society."

"Kuroba, you egotistical prat." He tuned into their very heated "disagreement". Disagreement? What were they, married?

"God dammit you SUCK Kudo! Screw it all- 9 outta 10"

"Shove it and just go!"

The two remaining boys looked twice their aged when they simultaneously shook their heads. They watched them for a while, sputtered defeats and loud curses in all. Saguru would have been happy to wordlessly clink glasses with Kaito to their friend's hilarious moronic tenancies until Kaito broken in, "It's nice to see them so close, after all they've been through."

Recognizing the reason behind the out of character pathos from the spontaneous troublemaker, Saguru nodded in agreement. "I think near death situations tend to grow the weirdest of relationships closer."

"Do you think Hattori realized he reopened the his forearm scar by pulling the bayonet?"

"The dolt is a clueless as ever. But I'm sure Toyama-chan will set him straight."

Kaito let loose another loud snicker, this time into his drink. The mess of words were incoherent, but a repeated use of "dog" seemed to be evident.

"Don't make fun Kuroba. Mouri-chan still threatens Kudo on a day to day basis when in ego gets too inflated, and I believe there was a particularly embarrassing mop-chase into a pet store curtsy of Nakamori-chan."

Kaito seemed to deflate. "It's all fun in games until the _things_ come out... Why do people even BUY them for PETS of all things?"

"Because it would be to expensive to take all of the- sorry- demons to an underwater guillotine, mutilate their bodies, burn them all world wide stake ad scatter their asks to the deepest recesses of the next galaxy."

"The government will see it my way. You'll see. You'll ALL see."

"Shut UP Kuroba before they notice that we're recording this for the girls' sleepover!" Saguru hissed. "You have Akako's adress?"

"The black and red one with the point fence and star circles on the front lawn with the creepy-ass clown statue by the homicidal tree and with the thunder and lighting surrounding it on 666th street?"

"That's the one."

"I'm sure you would know."Before Saguru even ask what the hell that meant through his red ears, Kaito continued, "But anyway, I still think they were pretty close even before the whole big.. uh, showdown. They just, I don't know, grew up a bit."

"Not the most shining example of their new found maturity, but I agree. Actually, in my psychological files-"

"Only you, Hakuba would keep pychological profiles on your friends." Kaito interrupted.

He was met by an unusually cheeky grin from his classmate. "Wait to you see your fat file. As I was saying, my theory is, because of their usually high IQ for for the majority of their lives , both of them grew accustomed to isolating themselves from other peers, as none of them could ever really keep up for interesting conversation. Being involved in sports and having his parents in the house somewhat forced Hattori to talk to people that didn't give stimulating conversations, so while he was ultimately disconnected from most his classmates he still was capable of making good acquaintances."

Meanwhile Kudo, since he dropped out of soccer and his parents were always traveling, never was forced to really talk to people and went into his shell even more. He never developed those kind of social skill of interacting and working not n the same level, and he looked down on them too much unlike Hattori. That may have caused some undue friction between him and Mouri-chan, buy that would be more on her part. Of course Hattori's track record in romance speaks for it's self, but I digress."

"So you're saying it was harder for him to make friends?"

"That's my best guess, at least. However, when the two of finally met they both exercised their social skills a little more, and in Kudo's case, opened up. However the one thing I still can't figure out is question is why, would Kudo open up to Hattori, of all people?"

"Mmm.. I think he almost had to." When Saguru gave him a raised eyebrow, he said, "Well, what else could he do? Hattori had already found him out. He wouldn't tell, but it would be stupid to pass up help- even if Hattori wasn't hellbent on helping. The reason why Hattori was so bent on helping wasn't just becasue of his hero streak, but since, to him it was probably helping out a good friend. Kudo was prideful and cocky brfore, but being 3'0 changes a guy. So when he couldn't really be prideful, it opened his eyes that another person his age was on par with him."

So I think over all of the bodies they tripped over, close shaves and detective debates, they kind of bonded. Hattori got to experience a genuine friendship and increase his deduction skills, but I think Kudo go the lion's share of change. In the end, not only did Kudo grow up physically, but also from an emotional and social viewpoint and learned to trust people and view them equally, so the whole Conan fiasco did more than save the world and junk. It changed him for the better. Get that all down Hakuba?"

A mix of irritation and sheepishness crossed Saguru's face after he set down his pen on the napkin. He coughed. "Yes. Seems you do actually have a moment here and there Kuroba."

"Again with the veiled insults. You hurt me, Hakuba-kun. You hurt me so much."

Saguru continued as if the other hadn't even spoke. "Even after you guys discovered you were relatives, I still think Hattori is his best friends."

"I think brothers would more describe it. Shin-chan can hardly even process that in all his moral high ground superiority, there's a , honorable, bust sill thief bloodline to match the justice. Our friendship is close too- hell we even _look _like brothers and act like it too- but Hattori will always be the special first friend."

"Good. Kudo needed to get out more."

"Says you! You're as pale as newspaper and run around that Sherlock costume!"

The Holmes fanatic bristled visibly. "Deerstalker and inverness! And I do too!"

"Waston doen't count."

"Yes, she does."

"Not."

"Does."

"Not!"

"Waston is a suitble compainion for my age!"

"April Fools! To bad you didn't get me."

"Kuroba, you-"

"Are right? Glad you see it my way Hakuba"

"-!"

"Ha! Rock beats paper Kudo! I win!" the darker skinned of they two began dancing around the very irate lighter skinned detective. His infantile festivities did no less than to earn an exasperated eyebrow twitch.

The twitch morphing into a full one eye spasm. "Paper. Beats. Rock. You. *fladoodling*. Jackass."

"Maybe, but cannonball blows a HUGE hole in paper." before Shinichi could retort, Heiji interjected, "I beat you 27 to 23! he only reason we played those sis so you could salvage the last bit of dignity you had left.

"Rematch." He growled, turning the question-turned-statement into a demand.

"As soon hell freezes over. You LOST Kudo. L-O-S-T. And now you have to pay the consequences!" To settle some juvenile area within Hattori stuck out his tongue

"Lost? You cheated!" Shinichi yelled, regardless of the danger of sounding a good decade younger.

"How so? Or is that your pride speaking?" the Osakan sniffed disdainfully in the air.

"A cannonball Hattori? A gun? Spock? A freaking H-bomb? You're a jerk!"

"Hey, you never told me what version we were playing. It's your own fault. Stop looking like a gutted fish-" Kaito moaned loudly under the table."-Sorry Kuroba- and take it like a man."

"Hattori you!-"

"Better hurry Kudo. Someone might be tampering with evidence right now. Every moment counts." Unable to contain it anymore, Heiji broke out into a full on song and dance in honor of his awesomeness. "I'm the be~st! I'm the be~st! Eff yes! Wh~at now suc~kas!" Shinichi had to had it to him- Heiji was one helluva a dancer when he didn't think about it- was that a back-flip?

Wait, never mind that! Damage control! The detective looked back in the direction of where the scream originated from. Megure-keibu's substitute had gone straight for the scene of the crime, and he did tell them to stay put... But then again when had any of them ever listen? Of course it wasn't as, erm, "noble" as he'd like to be, but today just was NOT the day to be solving mysteries.

He would admit that rock, paper, scissors, may not have been the most mature decision, but a quick one. And obviously the wrong one. Trust Heiji to screw up such a simple game.

"But- but wouldn't you want to increase your own publicity in Tokyo?"Shinichi counter weakly "Although I am the top dog around here, out of the goodness of my heart I can make an exception-"

By now, Saguru had "gently prodded" (read: forcibly dragged) Kaito out form under the table and toward the two "Kudo, just stop. It's undignified."

Shinichi just stared at Heiji for a moment. "…Damn you." He muttered.

"Hey, weren't you the one just groveling now?" Kaito just had to put in his two cents.

"Shut up Kuroba, before I say the f-word."

"You're so mean!"

"So, Kudo since you not so graciously accepted defeat, we'll be going now. I'll be sure to tell Neechan the fascinating story of why you missed the beach and the *Inesert Movie Title of Choice* while she pratices her karate, kay?"

"You are a sick, sadistic *******, you know that?"

"Learned from the best. Now, just go determine what type of injection poison it is, and it should ring up as the serial killer I've been hearing so much about."

"What the hell! We weren't even at the scene! How can it be a serial killer?"

"The guy hit every other Thursday at percisely 3:58 pm. Coincidence?"

"Yeah! we heard the scream at- what was ait Hakuba?"

"Um, it's rough, but I'm pretty sure it was 4:01.18... or was it 4:01.79? I'm sorry it-"

"See! There!"

"The guy was off 3 friggin minutes!"

"But if a serial killer is precise on time, then why would he be off my even milliseconds! Chances are it was just another murder!"

"...It could have just been a woman you saw a snake or something... she could be actually alive you know..." Kaito pipped up. He was immediately stepped back a meter or two when those very pissed over glared turned on him. "Or she's dead! Dead dead dead!"

"Just like you were about Spock V.S. Godzilla, you are totally wrong. To be honest, I don't think it here even IS a serial killer!"

"What? I was the one who came to that conclusion!"

"There isn't enough evidence in just two others!"

"Barou! That's plenty!"

"What did you just say, tantei_-kun? _I'm afraid you'll have to _rise above_ your _big_ pride and _lower_ your amount of _small-minded_ thinking"

"You-you incompetent fool!"

As the two best friends continued their viscous tirade, the more sane-at least at that hour- twosome backed away slowly, not daring to let a chuckle escape. Quietly they gathered their things and waled of in the opposite direction of the scream and the boys. Now it was undeniable. Those two really were the best of friend.

But they were still idiots. Their idiots, granted, but idiots indeed. And at that moment just looking at the two, throwing crappy insult after another while still somehow smiling was more insurance that they would be fine. But the adults in the group would have to go attend to the fairer sex- and give their thought out critique on the swimwear options. So the two off them went off to go buy the popcorn and do the dirty work, as usual. And have to go develop the ice camera photos and update the video to the computer for future blackmail.

They'd catch up.

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><p>Just... crack. O.o And I apologize. Just needed to get that out. The next one will be better, but for some reason Hakuba related. I want to branch out on him more. Then, after that I'll be doing work in he Magic Kaito Archive. So yeah.<p>

I always liked the idea of getting into the nitty gritty of how and why he Gosho Boy's friendship would turn out, found this in an old folder, and lo and behold, crack. I have to credit it **mangaluva**-san's _Psychology revision _fic for the logic behind that. Go check it out sometime! Should I continue with this kind of thing? Almost all of the "talked about" pairs are fighting... and the "commenting" pair is drinking something, but still showing their friendship as well.

I have no idea if Shinichi and Heiji's argument was even plausible T.T.. Of all the DC I watch and read, I sill can't come up with a decent mystery.

I just realized this, but 4 out of 5 chappiesin the series involved food... maybe I should eat while typing. But teenage boys to like to eat, so why can't they cause havoc then?

Until my next **C**R_a_**CkE****d!**Drabble!

~Daydreamer1412


	6. SuperDrabblet: Another Kind of Sunday

See! I'm here! And you though I was lying, pfft!

Sailor Moon strikes again, this time on St. Patrick's! Yeppers, it' another SuperDrabblet! Today's Super is a !journal one. ANd, as promised, is Saguru centered. No luff though- I don't need more guilt for another fluff drowning like the last SuperDrabblet... And Cookies and Ice Cream (shameless advertisment alert!) Which I revised to make it much better and cute!If you are a KaiAo, fluff or Dreamer fan go check it out! Grab your ice cream!

**This message has been brought to you by Fayl Cheez Inc- Cos nothing says fail than cheese that doesn't mold!**

Oh, and Smithy-chan (**Asmith137**) Happy Birthday! You would prolly kill me for saying this, but it's not like anyone here knows you ^.^ Hope you have a nice b-day, you angry litttle leperchaun, you!

My longest chappie... Ever. 8,134 words, including A/Ns... Go me! Boo you! You have to read it!

**})i({**

I finally joined protocol. I blame "the man". But I would like to thank Lessi-kun (**mousettez**) and **jazzmonkey**-san for their reveiws! You guys rock, and I'm going to dedicate this one to you two. Ha ha shared rights XD.

Aside from you two though, I have been feeling a little neglected in reviews... Okay I can understand for the crack o_o. But so many of ypu are looming out there- aww come on, I won't bite. Unless your bacon. Then you're doomed.

R&R!

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><p>SuperDrabblet #2 Another Kind of Sunday<p>

It was a picturesque Sunday. The temperature was at a steady 75, low wind, but a pleasant breeze to ruffle the hair every now and then. The sky, a crystal blue blanket that was dotted with some well received puffy white clouds, provided the perfect contrasting canvas for the sun. It was a refreshing breath of crisp air, as it had been raining a week previous. Now that they were nearing summer, days like this would become more regular.

Even in the busy town that he inhabited, Saguru had come across several people, children and adults alike, scattered everywhere in parks or restaurants. They, like him wanted to take advantage of the beautiful afternoon, before the school and work week returned. So far, the day had been delightful for the British detective. As he recorded in his day to day journal his latest entry. It was rare he got to update his journal so often!

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><p><strong>7:02.28-7:48.90 AM: Awakening and Morning Ritual<strong>

_I was slightly disappointed in my unusually late waking hour. It seems my alarm clock is loosing seconds faster than I thought. Must remeber to ask father for a Louis Van Fruehauf_ _alarm clock for my birthday. I cannot to afford to rise so late, especially on school days._

_The flight back home ran late last night, so the steaming shower was particularly rejuvenating. It washed the last of the morning lethargy from me. Sir. Quackles seemed to be a bit dry from the lack of baths lately-must amend that promptly later today after picking up some vanilla bath oils. _

**7:54.93-8:59.58 AM: Breakfast With Baaya**

_My word, poor Baaya will work herself into an early at this rate! Buzzing about and fussing over minuscule matters tat had already been attended to. Though Hakuba Manor is a sizable home, care-taking an orderly family of two can't be that demanding, I imagine. Especially since it's mostly me that is inhabiting here as of late. Father is on investigation leave in Nishio._

_After I finally convinced Baaya to put down the blasted feather duster in for a moment, we had a pleasurable quiet breakfast together on the veranda. My dear old nurse always seems to know everything on my mind. To accompany my favorite breakfast of a banana nut muffin, a steaming cup of Ealy Grey with precisely 2.8 teaspoons of sugar added, and a salmon omelet, complete with wild mushrooms, beef tomatoes, seasoned with salt pepper ratio of 4:7, filled to the brim with Buxton blue cheese and a hint of clove, were a folder of recent unsolves murder and embezzlemnnet cases in the area. This was invaluable as Father had recently restricted my detective work as to "relax" what's more relaxing thean a job well done?_

_Regardless, it was invaluable. I wouldn't know how to fill the extra hour without these. Before I could even thank her, she shook her head secretively and stood to attend to some matter we both knew were invalid._

_Baaya is the best. _

**9:09.45-11:32.61: Case Filing **

_Tedius work, but necessary. It was of the usual batch, describing past cases, filing interesting psychological profile examples, prioritizing the long list of murder cases from Baaya, and the like._

_I am currently reciting the circumstances of my more successful case to remind myself WHY it I am a detective. This and reading over my early murder and KID cases demolish any doubts. I still am considering hiring a professional secretary though._

**11:37.73-12:30.46: Recreational Reading**

_Not much to write, except to marvel at the brilliance that is Doyle. As of now, I reread the Hound of Baskerville and Valley of Fear each twice, and decided to leave A Study in Scarlet for my later reading hours. Now, where was I...?_

_Redit: I really shouldn't have left the entry hanging like that, so this is to make amends. I have finished reading for now. Time to go check on Waston._

**12:50.15-13:46.13: Training**

_I was very pleased to see Waston's filoplume and contour are healing rapidly, if not completely. I know her burns we not deep from the Syndicate... showdown, for a lack of a better word. But they took longer to heal, especially since she slightly fractured a bone. Thank goodness it wasn't too serious._

_Today's visit at to the aviary was supposed strictly to check on her healing progress. Apparently, Waston didn't get the memo. Nearly took my head of when I walked in the door, pecking and preening me as if I had feathers myself. She seemed to be annoyed in a good humor, probably because I have refrained from visit to resist the urge to go hawking again. _

_For journal I will only confess that, against my better judgement, I did take Waston out for a quick little session out in the courtyard. I think she wanted to as much as I!_

_To be honest, I have to admit that it felt like more of s stretcher for me than anything else. After all that's happened, it's been a little surreal. To have this one peice of normality back in my life means more to me than anyone could ever imagine. Just me and Waston. At these training, sometimes I could fly right beside her, as I feel right now. Grandfather always said I would be a brilliant austringer. Grandfather could fly. Maybe I will one day too._

**14.12.82-15.22.72: Cafe Lunch**

_Sometimes I suspect this watch to be fixed._

_I decided to eat lunch at the little multi-cultural restaurant I visited a little while back._

_The cafe is still as delicious as ever. Since I had a hearty breakfast, I opted for the Caesar salad. I passed the time reading the newspaper. I purposely avoided the front page in general and obituary. If I worked now, then what would be the point of a Sunday? Maybe they think it o for a teenager, to be appearing as working through rush hour, but several other booths seem to be stealing glances over here. Must be my imagination- oh, my quill is getting dull! Better go stop by the stationary shop for my errands._

_Must remember to tip the busboy. His suggested dressing was divine._

**15.33.21- 15:55.98: Errands**

_Since each little trip would be a hinderence to record, I stopped to record them, as I am approaching the last stop now. I should clarify to my future self that this was NOT a former grocery list. A to do list, at worst._

_-Sharpen writing quill at the satainary store_

_-Drop off solved cases at Station_

_-Window shop for Fruehauf alarm clock_

_-Shop for ingredients for supper tonight_

_-Buy personal handkerchiefs _

_After this, I can retire home for a peacful conclusion to my Sunday._

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><p>Whistling a merry ditty, Saguru strolled into the familiar outlet. It was quaint and clean. A rich mahogany color covered the walls and the wood floor paneling was consistent and swept spotless. Several mannequins wearing the latest in suit fashion were tastefully spread the smallish but cozy establishment. It was a haberdashery more than anything, with a large stock of sewing materials, hats, ties, suits, tuxedos, and obviously handkerchiefs. Services included tailoring, custom suits, suit repairing and beginner classes for crosshatching and knitting.<p>

He waved to the shop owner he knew, a pale woman in her mid fifties with a wild shock of white hair who preferred to be referred to as simply Fumio-obasan. Squinting through her thick bifocals, Fumio made a small sound of recognition and gestured him closer to the maple cash counter.

"Hello there Saguru-kun." she said in what would have been assumed to be a whisper to those unaware of that her tonsils had been surgically removed.

Saguru gave a respectful bow before replying. "Good afternoon Fumio-obasan." his brow furrowed worriedly. "Seems the doctors neglected to give you the medication for recovery again. Was it Yoshiro-san or Kimura-san?"

"Oh Saguru-kun, ever the skeptic. No, I myself forgot to pick it up. The shop has been busy as late, so I hadn't the time to catch the bus to go fill out the prescription. I phoned Kimura-san and he told me it was fine that I hold off. It was more to relive the pain."

"I see. You could have always called me- I'm sure Baaya wouldn't mind."

"I couldn't ask that of you or Abigail! And besides, I've such a adventure this past week with such a stubborn piece of tule..."

Sensing that this was going to be a very dull and none too expeditious adventure, Saguru took a seat a one of the barstool-like chairs at the counter, rested his head in his hands and listened intently. Or at least attentively. Okay, so maybe he was a bit distracted, what with his mind wandering her there, everywhere form the conversation. He really did like to talk with Fumio on his visits, but whenever she started launching off into one of her lectures, usually he had to get going somewhere so he didn't have to stay.

Especially since the both of them knew he was in no rush to go anywhere it was only the polite thing to do. If nothing else, Saguru was courteous. Sometimes that's the best thing you can do, letting older people just talk. A simple nod or disbelieving shake of the head at the opportune moments usually got him through just fine. It still amazed him that, if more aged people ran out of breath faster, could they keep talking for so long?

Halfway between deciding between Shepard's pie or tuna casserole for supper, Fumio gave a small chuckle "...And it all ends up that it was that darned cat's fault for messing up my third stitch! Can you believe that? Oh, and here is your order- four embroidered St. Wilheim's salient handkerchief with the cloth lining and infused with vanilla bean?"

"Quite right. Maybe you should give him a friend to play with so he doesn't get into your work?"

"I think you may be right. But that's enough about me." she smiled as well as she could through her 16 teeth as she held out the Sunday paper. "It seems that a certain meitantei has been making quite a name for himself in the area!"

Saguru accepted the front page with wide eyes. The main reason he had avoided the front page was because whatever latest gory murder usually dominated; it was never good to relive such tragedy publicized. Instead of a mangled corpse decorating the page, a nice side profile of himself in the family crest robe (was his toothbrush in his mouth?) dominated the front article under an attentions calling title. The went into the detail of his half heritage, hobbies and involvement in the showdown. This was a a unexpected but certainly not unwelcome event for Saguru- he was more well-known in England than anywhere else, Suddenly, the newspaper seemed a lot more interesting. He was quickly engrossed in the articles, eyes nor smirk never moving. Just because he was "proper" didn't mean he wasn't an egotistical "proper" detective.

So it was quite a shock when a loud thump sounded on the counter, jarring both his body and thoughts from reading the article a twelfth time. His head snapped up to meet with 8 or so corn-yellow incisors pulled back in a wide smile. "And since you're becoming a big-name detective, you may as well look it. Oh come now, at least LOOK like you saw that coming, tantei-san. Happy birthday little! Go on, open it!" She shooed him off, shoving the festively wrapped box towards him.

"Fumio-obasan, my birthday is in several month's time!" Saguru stuttered, somehow still willing the bow to untie itself.

"And your reason for pointing this is...?"

"You've already done too much for me!" he trailed off as he lifted the item from the last of the gold tissue paper.

There, its perfect checker twill patterning seeming to leap off the hat, its earthy colors complimented the fabric beneath it was a handmade deerstalker. It could have been artificially made for all it's workmanship, but when examined closely, almost microscopic stitchery could be seen- the handmade sewing of a master. An eternity could have gone by before Saguru gently set it aside and pulled a lager item from the box. Soft and flexible cloth met his shaking finger tips as he stoked a finger over the tweed, fashioned in what could be none other than an handmade Inverness cape. In noticeable but not gaudy golden cursive stitchery over the breastpocket were two initials: **S.H.**

"...Sherlock Holmes." he whispered, voice barely audible. Fumio locked eyes with him and just shook her head.

"No, tantei-san. Saguru Hakuba."

Another surreal moment of silence passed, then Saguru opened his mouth, his expression already pained and guilty. "-As bright as you are, you still are a stick in the mud." Fumio interjected. "Before you even think of arguing or insisting payment or something moronic like that, answer me this- who else do I know is worthy enough to wear this? A project that's so close to my heart I couldn't bear sell it to a museum or such? Or if I am really going to take this back after I worked so long on it? You wouldn't cause all that stress to poor Fumio-obasan, would you dearie?"

Saguru shook his head obediently; she flashed him a sardonic grin before turning her back to him and focusing on the large bookcase of picture frames and knickknacks and memorabilia, none of which appeared not a single grain of dust gathered on them. Her eyes seemed to focus on a single picture of a hearty looking Japanese man with green eyes and a broad smile."That's a good boy. And besides... I think Niichan would be proud to see you wear that."

All of the detective's vocalizing seemed to shut down. He nodded solemn, a sad grin spreading on his face. He was close to working up asking the nerve if she was okay once her shoulder's started shaking before she interrupted him again-right before the beginning of his sentence. "Well don't just stand there! Go try it on so I can see how it looks. In the back, third door to the left- you know where it its."

He nodded again. What was up with his voice? He walked to back corner store, facing the dimply lit hallway to the bowels of the haberdashery. Before he entered, he turned on his heel just as Fumio was straightening the photo yet back in it's original place. Face ridden with emotion, Saguru was able to let out the words he needed most.

"Thank-you." He spun on his heel without another word in search of the makeshift dressing room.

Once safely inside with the door lock locked behind him, Saguru let out a muted holler in the confides of the storage room; is he smiled any wider his face would rip off. Thankful for the stylish khakis and simple polo he chose that morning, he carefully let the familiar fabric fall over his shoulders and stood tall. Next came the deerstalker almost custom made to lie perfectly at the crown of his head. Finally he took a step back at the mirror. He was surprised to say the least. There, his 6'2 build nearly filling the frame, was a taller, more confident, even grand version of himself. He looked cool and composed, detached just enough to get a job done, but still relate able. Professional. A subtle glimmer caught his eye. The cursive appeared to be especially elegant, just for him.

"S.H. indeed."

After a few more moments admiring himself, the Saguru grew slightly self conscious. Was he honestly gawking at himself? That wouldn't do- he had to go show Fumio-obasan! With a bit of a skip to his step he jogged down the hallway, a new mental journal entry was already forming in his head. This Sunday was turning ut wonderfully As he rounded the corner and stood at the entry, Saguru tried to hold back the reserved caution that welled up within him when he saw the figure standing at the front counter.

"-...Again Fumio-obasan. Oh, hello Hakuba." the dark hair boy with dark indgo eyes gave a congenial wave in his general direction.

...Oh _$#!+_! He actually saw him. Well, no point in hiding now- Fumio-obasan would be hurt if he left without letter her see, in any rate. Trying not to look nearly as foolish as he felt, he made his way to the counter, a somewhat forced grin on his lips. "Hey Kudo. How are you?"

"I'm fine thank-" Shinichi's voiced dies away as he got a good look at his friend. His eyes grew wide. "Good Kami, is that what I think it is?"

"Yes. Brilliant, isn't it?" There was nothing wrong in showing his appreciation, was there?

"It suits you. The initials were a nice touch, by the way. But you know researchers no longer believe Holmes actually wore this outfit. Too much of a fashion faux pas in the Victorian Era time period."

"True, but it seems fitting somehow. And who knows- maybe it was another disguise, aside from traveling clothes, ne?"It was always fun discussing the pure majesty that is the Inverness and deerstalker combo with a fellow Holmes enthusiast such as himself rather than the initial shock of his... distinctive clothing taste.

Shinichi laughed and hefted the large box of plainslothes handkerchiefs in his arms. "So, what brings you here today? I'v'e just bought a ton of handkerchiefs for evidence collecting; I run through them so fast these days. "

"Oh just to pick up personals for myself. I have a trunk full of case clothes. And, to my surprise, recive this generous gift from Fumio-obasan." he thanked her again and she waved him off, saying that he looked dashing. "By the way, Fumio-obasan do you know Kudo personally?"

"Ah yes, his otousan used to come to the shop all the time. Looks just like him too. Insisted were the only ones capable if he, heaven forbid, needed tailoring done. We actually made his first red carpet suit. Do tell Yuusaku-kun I say hello, okay Shinichi-kun?"

"Will do."

"I never knew," Saguru said, bewildered. "So Kudo," he began, feeling the cautious feeling creep up on him again, " Is Mouri-chan meeting with you today?"

"Oh no, flying solo this time. Not that I don't miss Ran, but it's been a nice day off so far." Shinichi replied admiringly, with a bit of a gleam to his eye.

Maybe the sap was init deeper than he though, or he was playing along. Ah well. may as well make it obvious if it's already known. "Really?" No cases?" He let the question trail off at the end.

A lok of realization dawned on the detective's face. The laughter in his voice was self evident as he informed Saguru in a much to reassuring tone laced in,"Eh, a few, but nothing serious. One was a a kid that had just dropped his candy so I bought him one, another an attempted purse snatching- the poor fool will be feeling that soccer ball tomorrow. Then this cat got stuck in a tree. Pretty uneventful." A shrug.

He couldn't help the small sigh of relief that leaked out of him. No cases. Wonderful. Not that he didn't like cases... he just didn't like people being killed. Or littering. If he left soon he may be able to make it home before any such unfortunate events may occur, and around Kudo there was always a 95.8211% chance. "What, is student president not big enough for you? Running for mayor next?"

"That's right. Try to live up to my standards, Hakuba." Shinichi sniffed the air disdainfully.

"In your dreams." Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but Baaya is expecting these ingredients for-" He was cut off when all the force of a professional fullback crashed into him, the wind was knocked out of him. Unbalanced, Saguru was sent sprawling onto the floor; Shinichi could barely process what the hell just happened and had only the time to blink stupidly.

It was beyond him why he even tried, sometimes.

"AM I TOO LATE?"

From his slightly blurred vision from the scarlet rugs, Saguru could see Fumio-obasan was unfazed. "Why hello there Heiji-kun."

Hattori? That prat was here? Hoisting himself up with a muttered curse or two under his breath, Saguru stod to his full height to obseve a very anxious looking dark-skinned yound man ant the counter speaking rapidly.

"Andiwokeuplate'causeit'stheweekendandohmanthisisbad! Fumio-obasan, I'm so sorry-"

"Heiji-kun, could you pass be that book over there?"

"Oh sure! What this underneath it- a calender?" He leafed through the calendar. "Oh, what do you know, it's Social Worker's Month and- today's SUNDAY?"

"Mmm-hmm. Not a few hours but an entire day late. You really shouldn't keep me waiting like that you know."

"I know, and I apologize." A rare sight indeed- Hattori Heiji actually apologizing.

"Apology accepted."

Shinichi took the gap in the conversation to ask the questing on both the Holmes fanatics minds."What are you doing here?"

Heiji's back visibly tensed under his trademark jacket. He spun around so fast he almost fell. "Oh Hey Kudo, Hakuba. And that's my line." He have gave a small chuckle that sounded more like a strangled cough.

"How do you know Fumio-obasan?" Saguru pressed. Hattori always was crappy at lying. And failing to tell the truth. And being subtle. Hell, it was a miracle that Shinichi wasn't found out in the first week he found out.

Suddenly a spot under Heiji's eye felt really, _really_ itchy. "Erm, my, uh, she knows Kaasan, and Kaasan needed me to pick up some... aglets?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Heiji-kun!" Fumio called in a voice that had no trace of remorse. "These batty old head can't think _or_ hear today!" she grinned tightly, a sinsiter air eveloping about her. "I had a tough time dealing with he kid today without you, so could you tutor the girl scouts with their lockstich and advanced embroidery for the woman's night class? I'd do it myself, but you're already so skilled with the doilies, I figured..."

"Yes yes yes, Fumio-obasan!" Heiji cut her off, to no avail. His so called "friends" we having a jolly good laugh at his expense, not even trying to hold back. Worse yet, Fumio-obasan looked like she wanted to join in, but satisfied herself with wry smirk and reminding Heiji to bring his handmade satchel to the night class since "It has such a lovely example of high quality embroidery with you sports team logo!" . Utterly defeated, Heiji could only hang his head in shame as the qupis kept comming.

"Why Hattori, I never knew you were the domestic type!" Saguru's laughs had died down a bit from the initial shock: the hot-blooded ace motorcyclist, baseball fanatic kendo star detective of the west... sewing master. Still, least he was graceful in his defeat- only five times had his parent's relationship during before he was born was questioned under his breath.

Shinichi had a little more composure, forming his mockery in a half- real question, "Do you think you could help Ran with the topstich? She says the cricking is hard."

"It's crisping!" Heiji snapped, "And fine. Tell to swing by on Thursday-I'm holding a seminar for edges."

"Uh... thanks? How did you, start you uh, little hobbie?"

Heiji turned on him with the most serious look Shinichi had seen from in in a long time. "Summer camp was in the tsunami season, my counselors were hormone raged teenagers, and I had already made Kaasan eight potholders. You do the math." he sighed, remembering his third grade memories. Then he got an eyeful of Hakuba, blinked, and a grin was turned crooked. "Oh, and nice Holmes costume Hakuba. But you know they say he would never actually wear that on a day to basis?"

"Yes, I know," he replied shortly, miffed at the unintentional insult to his _"costume"_. "But I like it."

Heiji shrugged nonchalantly. "If you say so. Great stitching, nevertheless. I assume this was your project you've been hinting about Fumio-obasan?"

"Of course. Thank you for the buttonholes Heiji-kun. It's getting harder to mark the right spot."

"No problem. I needed practice on tweed anyway."

"Wait, you.. helped?" Saguru's eyes were as wide as Shinichi's.

"Apparently. Fumio-obasan didn't say exactly what the project was for though. It was late, so I was too tired to ask." Classic Hattori- making people pity or feel guilty without even knowing it.

"Um... Thank-you, Hattori."

"Sure. Anything to make the most annoying Brit stand out even more." he grinned again, this time cheekily.

Ignoring the quip, Saguru began gathering his things and undoing his cape and dismounting his hat, carefully string them in the box Fumio-obasan provided;He really had to get going. Not that he was ungrateful or didn't enjoy their company- quite the opposite. It was just the prior uneasy feeling he got was intensified to a full blown mental anxiety attack. Meeting Kudo here in his private hang out on a_ Sunday_ was bad enough. Let's be honest- the guy couldn't go a day without someone hitting the floor, especially this late in the afternoon. But with Hattori mixed in too? It was any minute before some body showed up, the sky or otherwise. Maybe the killer would be a bit more hospitable and and send it throught the postage system.

"It's been fun, but I have to be making my way back." he headed toward the door, albeit reluctantly. Did he really have to to go? The were such good chums, and Baaya wouldn't expect him until seven or so. Maybe he could stay for a bit...

Then there was a scream. Bursting into action, the boys raced out the the sidewalk to come face to face to the horrible appalling scene of... A child fallen off her bike.

He would go gray at this rate. After righting the child and sending her on her merry way, Saguru went to pick up his things. No, no he couldn't. "I'll see you guys tomorrow." He began to walk out the door.

But Saguru, our dear, naive, unassuming Saguru had not taken into account that fate never gave him a break. Not even on Sunday.

Yet again he gasped, this time in excess that lack of air. It was like so revved up version of the haberdashery's overall shoe polish and what seemed to be coffee. The combination was both odd and unexpected, sending the Detectives of the East and West into a sneezing fit or teary eyes. Saguru in the thick of the odor nearly coughed up a lung. Between the hack, sneezing and swearing, Saguru could hear a gasp and sound of joy could be heard, followed by a deep intake of air through the nose- trust Fumio-obasan to like the scent.

Once he was assured that he wouldn't loose his lung to the vile miasma, he could see a reasonably tall (at least from his double over angle) wore a tall something or another on his head. he would have called it a hat, if some it didn't appear to have some green plants sticking out of it.

"My, my you surprise me every time! You even had my favorite scent!" Fumio clapped her hands delightedly.

"Always happy to be of service." the tenor replied, also in high spirits with may be a bit of smugness mixed in.

By then the smoke had literally cleared, Saguru could get a better look of the mysterious visitor. At shortest 5'10, but the floppy stovepipe hat clouded his judgement. the hat itself actually did have small three or four leaved plants growing out of the top of it like a garden and not a hallucination; around the front it was striped, green and white. the figure was lean, even under his jeans and baggy black coat. His pitch of his voice, open body language, animated speech and small white feathers on his should told Saguru only one thing. He need get out of there like a bad outta bloody *fladoodling* hell.

Unfortunately before he could make the quarter mile spirit to the Benz, Heiji clapped an experimental hand on the man's back, asking, utterly dooming all of Saguru's chance of a nice Sunday down the toilet. "Kuroba?"

Oh _bugger!_

The figure turned, and the threesome met face to face with their good tag-along Magician Friend Kuroba Kaito's wide-albeit surprised- smile. "Oh, what do you know, the Three Meitantei seeking me out when I did absolutely nothing. And I didn't arrange for you to be here... that's next week." He grinned mischievously.

The usually calm, composed, Icy Detective was now sweating like a pig. The former uneasiness had grown to a full blown panic attack, and it was all he could do was not show it. He was afraid of Kuroba- God no, he had been dealing with him for three years now. More like the things he could do... to him and his blessed Sunday. In retrospect he should be grateful- at least no one would die. As unlucky as Kudo and Hattori combined (and anyone who had the misfortune of associating with them), Kuroba had more luck in his freaking pinkie. He could always counteract, as Akako had put it, Kudo Curse- the price being all involved forced to deal with the horrors that was Kuroba Kaito.

Saguru would rather take the curse.

A none-too-helpful montage of all the days of knowing the magician in and out of costume, starting with his first unwilling hair dying color- chartreuse. Images of pink pinstripes, ducklings in his socks, heist gems in his morning coffee, notes in his bologna sandwich, little "presents" left by his newer doves on his homework, and loss of his belt- forcing him to go with his pants slightly_ sagging_ for the entire day follow. Hakuba Saguru did NOT sag. This, among some other really weird $#!+ tat we cannot print for viewers, as it would be concidered "dangerous".

And, through all odds, Saguru had actually survived and thrived the seemingly perpetual attacks, even befriended the barmy, gormless twit. he could handle it 24/6 , 24 hours a day (ever since the warm water bid) six days a week. Six. Not, not seven. Sunday was the seventh. Sunday was the day of rest. Sunday was the one day he didn't work on a case: he could collect his thoughts, eat crumpets without being ridiculed, read a little, train with Waston, read his morning paper and whatever the #%*^#$%^&*# $#!+ he wanted to. Sunday was good. Sunday was safe. Sunday was sanity. Sunday was Saguru's day. _This was not happening._

Obvious to Saguru's mental breakdown, Shinichi greeted, "Ignoring that last part, nice to see you too, Kuroba," he leaned on the counter slightly. You didn't need to be a detective to know he wasn't wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Heiji mimicked the pose, jamming his hands in his pockets and closing his eyes, a most comfortable casual position. "Nice hat," he commented cooling with a grin, as it was every other day Kuroba came up with other insane scheme. Stupid as they were, they were almost always fun.

Kaito righted his hat proudly "Why thank you! I like to give my best effort for holidays."

There was a silence, aside from Saguru's hyperventilating. Finally, with a sigh and a roll of his eyes, Shinichi inquired"What? St. Patrick's?" he knew the answer before Kaito nodded vigorously. "We're in Japan genius!" he deadpanned.

"Your point being? We celebrated Mardi Gras!"

"Valentine's was FORCED."

"Whatever, I'm just glad I could bring you guys some spirit, what with all this talking and standing. I don't know how you can stand their dullness, Fumio-obasan."

"Hah?" Fumio looked up from her paperback and squinted. Then she giggled lightly fiddling with her emerald pendant. "A little formal for all that's happened, don't you think?"

"NANI?" The boys screamed in unison, even Saguru, momentarily snapped out of dark incantations.

"And you look terrible! All that hard work, resewing and steaming that nifty top hat of yours! It was so white and clean too!"

Heiji got Kaito in a gentle but sturdy headlock, using his other had to silence him. Shinichi spoke, his voice close enough to Kaito's in range to pass the blind but rabbit like hearing Fumio. he pressed, his smirk much too like his cousin's, "White, you say?"

"Yes, you know! It match that suit you had- handsome devil, aren't you? And your monocle it completely made the look! What have you done to it- the clover charm chain is hanging there right around your neck!" Fumio tsked, displeased. "Pretty nice for St. Patrick's, but really!"

Before Fumio could say or ask anything else, Kaito managed to slip a plastic snake up Heiji's sleeve. it was so realistic that he immediate released his captive in favor of hollering ear shatteringly loud. "Put your glasses on!" Kaito bellowed.

"Hah? Oh, it's you!" She blinked, and realizing her company, she stuttered uncontrollably, "I thought it was, the, erm, milkman! Oh, hi Kaito-kun" she giggle nervously and went off to attend to the clothes.

"Not a word." the ex kaitou growled through clenched teeth.

"Whatever stops the tears Kuroba."

"Shut up! As I was saying, I'm glad I bumped into you all to share Pat Day."

"Wait a minute... St. Patrick's was yesterday!" Heiji exclaimed, remembering his episode with the calender just minutes ago.

"Yeah! And I couldn't find you Hei-chan! I could find anyone!" Kaito cried in a woe-is-me-voice "I even began to think you were avoiding me!"

"Nooo, not us! Avoiding you! Pfft!" his near-twin's eyes drifted towards the ceiling again.

"Why do you hurt me this way Shin-chan!" The top hated man-child stuck he tongue out at his cousin, who only waved off the childish gesture. "Anyway, I came to bring spirit to Fumio-obasan. But now, I can check you lot!" He began to examine the two detectives, head to down.

"Why do I even try...?"

"Oh goody Kudo, you're in the spirit! A green coat and shirt graphics! Hattori, That turquoise color shirt is leaning more into the aqua family, but due to your flawless dark emerald eyes, I can make an acception. Do you wear contacts?"

"Kuroba, you moronic fool, you know was well as I do that-!"

"And finally, Haku- oi!" Faster than any guy should have been able to move, Kaito blocked the only exit. Saguru's eye twitched uncontrollably as he cursed himself for taking those darned notes. He knew more than any young man- strike that- person in general should know about Criminal1412. Now, looking down at his khakis and white polo, his Sunday was screwed, along with his sanity.

Of coarse it was St. bloody Patrick's. Just his rotten luck or at least in Kuroba's jacked up mind.

Kaito began walking menacingly over to Saguru, but in reality causally strolled over. "You were out of the entire country yesterday! Where were you? Ashamed because you weren't in the- SPIRIT!" At the last word, there was a puff, a scream cutesy of Saguru and the dull sound of impact. When opened his eyes, everything was green. Banners of clovers covered the walled and floor, and in the other rooms, the mannequins' former attire had been changed to stylish mossy outfits.

Then he looked down. He was green, but certainly not of envy. Everything form his designer khakis to this blonde hair was dyed green. Then came the laughter. All three of the male Japanese natives had tears streaming from their eyes, hollering and hooting. Even Fumio-obasan had a a repressed chuckle. he checked his watch for any damage, but it miraculously was untouched.

At that moment, on March 18th, 16:06.66pm, the intricate clockwork that made the sum of substance of one Hakuba Saguru, something snapped. And once snapped, there was no going back.

Eyeing a small circular object lying beside him, Saguru picked it up to find it to be a spare chroma-bomb, an invention of Kuroba's to be his main weapon of color choice for his daily pranking needs. Clenching it in has hand, a thought passed Saguru. Was this what it was like for the murderer, right before killing someone?

And then he stuck.

It was meant to be joke, a tantrum a best, but somewhere in what was supposed to be a mock throw at the boy, a surge of adrenaline and male pride surged trough him causing the accursed sphere to fly from his fingers. He was a horrible aim- it was supposed to be toward Kuroba's face, but it landing in dead center of their group, and exploded upon ground impact. In his shock, Saguru could only stare as a jade cloud enveloped them. After the cloud subsided, he could find a green and very shocked, Kuroba, Kudo and Hattori. In the long gap of silence that followed, a wave a rebelliousness rushed through the prim and proper detective, casuing to only point and laugh hysterically. He, Hakuba Saguru, had thrown a bomb. He had pranked someone. He had broken his Sunday rule. He loved it. And their faces were priceless.

"Ahahahahahahahah! Turn...about is fair-play, isn't it gents? You... all look so very lovely in sage!" He cracked up, now rolling on the ground in his tears.

Had it been anyone else, The boys who had kicked their butts in a clear shot to China. It was so abnormal, supernatural, and flat out weird they could hardly do much more than just stare in disbelief. And yet... nice. That he was loosening up. An abnormal, supernatural, weird kind of nice.

Regaining himself first, Kaito sucked in his face, succeeding in turning his face coarse and hard. Eyes dancing he turned to his friends on both flanks. they nodded solemnly, looking down at the British teen. Conjoring a line of chroma-ball ranging from viridian to magenta to russet to violet for each side, Kaito picking up an A.K.47 ( Alizarin-Key Lime to the 47th degree) Kaito assured Fumio-obasan that none of the colors we permanent except for the green that exploded on their clothes, and would evaporate in a few hours. She consented, claiming to get renovations soon anyway.

Speaking for them all, Kaito roared, "This. Means. WAR!"

Accepting the challenge along with a chromo-bomb, Saguru saluted. "For Saint Patrick!"

To Saguru's knowledge, the rest was all a blur. Vague memories of teal and aurulent still were engraved at the end night, all to be summed up in three words. Best. Sunday. Ever. It was tough convincing Baaya of his "dry cleaning" fiasco, but it ended up rather easy when Baaya shut him up and sent him to bed.

Later that night, his hair yet again in a charming shade of chartreuse, Saguru wrote for the last time in his journal.

**16:06.66- ?: Reunion**

_The errand didn't end up exactly as planned. Or my Sunday. Long story short, I found them. Or rather, they found me. _

_What all that transpired in that haberdashery may not be actively acknowledged as being "legal" persay... And I already got it all down on my memo. This entry is more from tradition than anything._

_What I can say that they completely and utterly destroyed my Sunday. Even after the amazing gift Fumio-obasan made me that I spent eight and a half pages describing. My quiet, peaceful, refined Sunday was overrun by the loud, rude, immature blighters the lot of them. And now I'm really one of them._

_Oh, I'm probably the most sane of us all still. That's a fact that will not change anytime soon. But, I've -I don't know- changed somehow. Who knows if I'm just more off my rocker that I give myself credit, but everything seems a bit lighter now. Maybe I shouldn't have let them drage me to the cider bar so late..._

_I digress. Where was I? Errands, memo, present, ruined Sunday, ah, reformation. They broke me. And I'm sad to say that I don't mind._

_What a brilliant psychological file I'll make._

_ In the end __there are some things you simply can't let go by in life, and youth and fun times are one of them. I'll still have my Sundays though- heaven knows I'll be thrown in the nut house if I don't. But... maybe, just maybe, I'l try to cutloose everyone once in a while._

_With my friends._

* * *

><p>Gah! I butchered the last entry! \T^T

Ah, some more Saguru. Accept for the last said entry,l I'm proud of this one! First time with journal/ first person... how'd I do? I'm curious.

I experimented with changing from fist to last names for whoever the paragraph center about, but I'm not sure if like it. Regardless, if you were wondering, this is a result of my listening to my English teacher.

Let's see, a lot of added in facts. I should say that most of these are of my own twisted imagination, but if anyone is curious, please ask. I don't make up everything!

I wonder if I irritated any of our friends across the pond/canal/continent/world with my usage of British slang. 3 words: A. For. Effort. I really thought hard on these ad did some research! But that was on the internet, and we ALL know how that can be a bad source of information XP. Regardless, I'm sorry if I did, I had no intentions of making fun of it. So any fellow otakus that can help an uncultured American such as myself, please do.

Fumio was a fun OC! I had fun with Kaito and Heiji's hobbies... Doilies... *snickers* I always liked the idea of Saguru know a shop keep well and them giving him something. That was supposed be for his birthday but oh well! No one cares!

This plot line was weird how it came about. It stared with the question of "How do all the detectives ALWAYS have a handkerchief on hand during cases? Don't they run out? Anyone else seriously wonder that? And the department would take a long time getting it back to them, right? So then Hakuba appears in my mind buying them, and then going on to have a splendid Sunday to and work with Waston.. and then then THIS happened, because we all know he can't have a normal Sunday!

As I'm sure you all know, it is Children's Television Awareness month. So I must credit my knowing of what the duck a haberdashery was to Nevel from the ICarly series, and vaguely Squidward From Spongebob Squarepants(Oh gosh don't EVEN go there) series for the ideal Sunday. Oh, and Jimmy Neutron, for, uh, just being awesome. I loved that show when I was younger. Danny Phantom and X-men too! But looking at the more recent T.V. (again, we're all otakus/geeks here, so I'm not naming names) I lost faith, retreated to anime and never looked back. Except in Nexflix ;D

M'kay, so I'm going to take a break from this NOT DIE. I just want to go work on the Magic Kaito category. (shameless advertising alert) So follow me as an author in general to be updated. Akako, Aoko, and Kaito fans in particular!

And since I'm already on a rambling roll (the smart ones would have stopped at Spongebob) I have developed new symbols for relationships that I intend to use at some point.

Friend/\Friend (Platonic relationship. No romance at all, just a close friendship.) Ex, Ran/\Aoko,Shinichi/\Kaito Saguru/\Shiho (to those wondering, yes, I do SaxSh supprort them as a couple as well as SxAk)

Family\/Family (Family love, not incest. Parent-child, brother-sister, etc) Ex Ginzo\/Aoko, Yuusaku\/Toichi (yes, I DO suspect them!) Akemi\/Shiho

Name/Name (One sided love. The first is the one IN love, the second the one that's not. the more / the more unlikely.) Ex Akako/Kaito, Ai/Conan, Sonoko/KID

Well that was pointless. And irrelevant. But whatever! use thses as you weel, with some credit.

Until My Next Stupid Drabble,

Daydreamer1412


	7. Normally Extraordinary

(Edit 5/23/12)

1...2...3! 9,000 words! Yay me!

This has haunted me ever since I published this chap... Oh the horrendous grammar! Gah, I could just die!

So thank you all doubley for putting up with... That monster. Tripley for all who reviewed anyway! And quadrupely for dear Lessi-kun... What a crappy gift -_-...

So I edited all of this on my loyal dumbphone Dante- hopefuly he wasn't being an imcompetant fool again! Regardless, its a hell of a lot better than before grammarwise, even if I *did* miss some things... Least I can sleep at night now.

New material, but nothing too big. Just some simple one-liner dialouge description.

And since I'm here... THANK YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS! I FEEL SO LOVED! YOU GUYS ROCK!

So, since this seems to be some questions, I'll let this time be a bit of a Q&A for any one of these drabbles. Ask them in a PM or review, and I'll address them in the chapter that it pretains to.

So the latest Q? From the first person who asked:  
>Will the girls show up withwithout powers, and will they be kickass or damsels.

Well first off, *almost* NONE of my works will they be soley damsels in distress. Maybe they will need a little saving now and then, but they will always, ALWAYS be kick-ass. Someone has to keep the boys in line, right?

Huh, I don't know. Not here, at least. These lil drabbles are supposed to be in the moment. This isn't a continuing story, just a collection of mutated plunnies. An EPIC collection of mutated plunnies, but plunnies still.

I will admit that this one had a bit of a backstory I had in mind... Fun stuff in there. That, and a couple of others too. I was hoping to branch out on them in seperate stories. Maybe you guys can help me figure out which one to branch out with first. After Zana's Challenge. And Smithy's Gift. And Rubies and Sapphires. And that one depressing fiv Ylva and I discussed... Good thing I don't have a life! ^_^

So, my Q time! Any plunnie ideas? Neko-chan already hasa say in the next one, so time to get fresh ideas! Situations, ideas? For this I would actually prefer a PM- more space to explain and an air of secrecy.

If I end up chosing or at least basing something off your idea, I'd like it to be a surprise! Oh, and *if* yours gets picked... Well it becomes a prezzie detecation to you, and you get just ONE dialouge sentece I include somewhere in there.

Soooo who's up for brown-nosing Dreamer with reviews...? (^｡^)

R&R!

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><p>Drabblet #5-Normally Extraordinary<p>

Mornings were always particularly difficult for Kudo Shinichi. There was always that in-between time of rest where you fully aware that you are conscious and that it was morning; the problem was you just seriously didn't feel like getting up. So he would often time just lie face first in his pillow in a futile attempt to somehow trick himself to back to sleep. Alas, the threat of suffocation was too much was to much to bear, so Shinichi opted to flop on his back to stare at his white ceiling.

It felt so weird.

Ever since the Showdown (for a lack of a better word) with the Syndicate, everything felt so surreal. His body was one of the largest things he need to get used to. Even now, a month later, he still felt the need to go on tip-toe for books that he could reach while sitting, knocking over condiments thinking that his arms were not long enough to grasp them without stretching, the occasional "Ran-neechan" slip resulting in a semi-annoyed glance from his former big sister at the honorific. Shinichi had never expected it to be this difficult to readjust to being his original age. Apparently the whole Conan fiasco had done more that he thought.

The downtime too was odd. Sure, he had corpses falling at his feet on a day to day basis, but he had found a lot more free time now. Chasing after those kids had been some work, as was knocking out Occhan on cases. Kid heists ere in a completely different category, as was much of anything involving Kid. And the whole stress of one day being found out by a silver haired sociopath and the keeping up the alias was straining as well.

But nowadays, he spent is time recording all of his solved cases as Conan; he was a good, oh 200 done of the 600+? Missing all those moths of school had put a bit of his dent in his school record, a B- average, but that could be remedied with some the usual post graduate work.

Above all else, he was mostly concerned with exactly how he would go about confessing his, erm, emotions to Ran. Even before Conan had come into existence, Shinichi had liked Ran, and of all the perils they had been through... Let's just say he wanted to be even closer. It didn't hurt matters that she liked him back.

But he figured he may have a reprieve, seeing as they all got released from the hospital just a few days before. He winced at the memory of the blinding pain- he had hurt all over, but that was nothing compared to Hattori. The man was in a near body cast for Holmes' sake! If he was counting correctly, which he always did, he was in there for a a good month or so, half of that slipping in and out of conciseness. All of the event before hand were fuzzy, but he figured they would come back soon enough.

Now here he was, two weeks into school, and his life in general. Studying (thank kami for his photographic memory!) smart-aleking teachers, solving mysteries, devising confession tactics to Ran, practicing his soccer moves, sleeping, the generic teenager stuff. Usually, Shinichi hated to be fit into such a box, but it was nice for things just to be normal again.

Too bad it could never last.

Admist his brooding, Shinichi's faraway gaze turned to his left, on his bookshelf. There, trophies and photographs over the years had been stored on the shelves, holding steadfast to the memories they immortalized. The photos in particular held sentimental value. Him on top of his teams shoulders after a winning shot. A younger himself, maybe nine or so and Dr. Agasa, faces blackened from a failed experiment. His parents, looking ageless on the red carpet. That faithful picture of him and Ran on their Tropical Land da-day trip. (He dare not let his thought slip otherwise). A group photo of him, Hattori, Kuroba and Hakuba arm in arm right before the Showdown, their expressions a mix between anxious, frightened, hopeful, and excited.

Finally, a picture of a group of kids, a heavy set hearty boy and freckled lanky boy, cheery bright-eyed girl and a reserved older looking girl. And that short one in the front, between the girls. He had glasses far too large for his face and a smart looking shorts and blazer outfit. He seemed to be smiling, almost smirking at the camera, blue eyes sparkling with intelligence and confience. Beside the picture the same large rimmed glasses lay, dust gathering on the lens.

Shinichi was going to miss that kid.

His lazy gaze floated over to his nightstand. There, his metal digital clock read TUESDAY, APRIL 16TH, 7:52 AM. The teen blinked once at the the clock, and a long a long string of unprintable words erupted from his mouth. "...^&*% DAMMIT! I'm going to be late for school!" Back to normal, and being late to school. Chiche indeed.

The next few minutes for Shinichi were spent in a hurried rush to assemble himself for the school day: Faceplanting onto the lovely rug on the floor after his shower, searching for his uniform tie-only to find they were clung to the back of his coat, and getting badly shocked by his evil toaster, which in its last few minutes of life burnt his toast. Yeah. Normal.

Between bites of blackened toast as he was gathering his homework, Shinichi found the time to glance at the evil clock. TUESDAY, APRIL 16TH, 7:55 AM. He had to admit, he was surprised by how good of time he was making. Must mean a good day for him. Shrugging, he leisurely headed out to the front lawn to wait for Ran, even treating himself with to a coffee. Seemed he had a lot more time nowadays.

He resumed his previous contemplating life on his hammock, until the sound of heavy breathing stirred him. There was Ran, out of breath with painted cheeks eyes closed in exhaustion. He glanced at his watch, 8:09. "You're a late, Ran. And I was getting worried too!" he said in a mock chiding voice.

"Gomen, Shinichi." she breathed. "Okasan was trying to cook again, and Tousan threw a fit, so I had to make a really huge breakfast before I even got dressed."

"Nah, I was just daydreaming." he mentally kicked himself for the ridiculously sappy fantasies that had ran around his head like a panicked squirrel. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah," she began to walk down the sidewalk. Shinichi caught up and stolled along- they were still on time.

Suddenly Ran burst out laughing. "I-I can't take it anymore! You're rediculous! Ahahahahaha!"

Shinichi just blink supidly. "Uh, Ran? What are you talking about?"

Ran rolled her eyes. "You con, how long are you gonna keep this up? You were acting all uppity about my being late, but you were running late too!"

"What makes you say that? I wasn't rushing at all!"

"Uh huh. Yeah right. Then what do you call that?" She pointed to her friend's face, her chuckles growing stronger.

An uncertain hand came to his cheek. "Is there something funny on my face?" The karate champ shook her head, passing her compact vanity mirror to him.

When he looked into the miniature mirror, he nearly dropped it. Indeed, there was nothing on his face. But rather his hair... He put Einstein AND Kuboba to shame. His dark brown locks were pointed in every direction possible, fizzed on the edges and spiky at the point. He looked like he liked to jam his fingers in electric sockets in his free time. His mouth didn't know quite what to do: say something, laugh, or scream. In the end it setteled on just keeping agape, jaw unhinged.

"Well now you have something funny on your face! So the great Kudo Shinichi is running late for school hmm?"

"Oh leave me alone. And you were even worse!"

"Yes, but I have an actual reason aside from rereading the entire Shelock Holmes series for the oh, thousandth time?"

"843rd, for your information. Hopefully it will die down once we get to school. Here you go." He passed her back her mirror. Ran winced, and immediately stuck her index finger in her mouth. "What's wrong?"

"You shocked me really bad." she muttered through her mouth.

"Severs you right."

Ran glared at him. "Oh shut up. Now come on or Yosido-sensei will kill us." Shinichi nodded in agreement as the speedwalked the rest of the way, making it just before the bell rang.

The rest of the schoolday proceeded pretty semi-normally from there. It was on boring side, more than usual. He never remembered having classes being so slow! He finished any and all essays, projects, equation, assignments or chapters he was assign he fished quickly, to the point of having just over an our of downtime. Not that he was complaining- it was a upportune moment to catch up on the sleep he deprived himself or for thinking. He should really stop doing that.

Ran seemed spacey as well; when he had turned to see why they're was a lack of sleeping-through-class quips or perhaps a poke with a pencil, he found Ran was completely tuned out. Staring off into some faraway place with that thoughtful expression... He couldn't help but find it attractive and enchanting and so... Ran. So he spent the majority of the day mostly to keep from doing anything regrettable.

Ran had karate practice late that night, and Sonoko had left for an unnecessary shopping spree, leaving Shinichi to his own devices. He was still kind of out of it from being in the hospital though. Which pretty much meant strolling on home to an exciting night of more thinking. And reading, if he felt like jazzing things up. Yes, his life was just a big bowl of awesome, wasn't it?

As he was reciting the Holmes v.s. Moriarty scene at Reichenbach Falls under his breath, the detective felt something cool and went fall on his still unruly mane. Before he could even glance up fully, thousands of its kin rained down on him, instantaneously soaking him to the bone. He cursed his luck bitterly; he had not exepected anything of the sort for the formerly cloudless sky.

The street was an nearly deserted main drag with only a few empty cars. Obviously he was the only idiot who hadn't been expecting the nasty change in weather. Since his house was still quite a ways to go, Shinichi began to run for it.

And that's when it all started.

Shinichi had always liked running- his profession and hobby after called for it. He had enough taken some private long distance coaching to prefect himself in soccer to the point he was down to a five minuet mile. He could also chase down outrun any fool who tried to mess with steal the ball to the pits of hell. Even as Conan he had had more than the lion's share of chases. From the nonsensical moonlit rooftop dances with Kid, to hunting down a criminal, to rushing to save Ran, catching up with the Detective Boys or even outrunning the boys of the Detective Boys, running was commonplace in Shinichi's life, and he had come to enjoy it very much.

But this...this was something else! There was just something about it all- the polarized relaxed intensity of his movement, the agile and swiftness his stride nearly flying over the earth, the power of every step he took colliding with the ground-that was absolutely and addictingly exhilarating. Out of corner of his eye, he could see the scenery go by, or rather the blurred spots of color. That was odd- he should still be able to see cars and the like. Worried for his vision, (maybe he did need glasses after all?) Shinichi willed himself to slow to a fast jog. But in the end, it wasn't his vision that was odd.

Everything around him...it had just... stopped. Completely. Everything around him- a college student, a runaway dog, a WacDonalds's wrapper- they all were at stand still. The student paused in mid walk with his expression forgetful, the dog with his mouth snarling and tail in mid wag, the wrapper flying in agonizingly slow with bits of ketchup still on it. Were Shinichi to glance up, he's see the even the rain too had stopped, even the ones half landing on his sleeve.

The final straw was when he heard to resounding boom from behind him. That was when through the confusions and elation of whatever the hell was happening turned to stark fear. Was it a bombing attack? An earthquake? Whatever it was he needed to stop. Now. By then he could feel his sole of his sock was wearing away, as his entire shoe bottom had. The friction of slowing down with only his socks was overbearing- he cold feel layers of his thick foot skin wearing down. Finally, with a final gigantic slide, Shinichi stopped. A huge gust of wind blasted him from behind, nearly blowing him of his feet, as cars' siren alrams blared.

To ace teen detective Shinichi, three things we clear as day. And just like all mysteries, the questions the facts answered led only to more questions.

He was completely dry.

He was in the lovely city of Fuchu, an hour's drive from Tokyo, in 20 seconds' time.

He had achieved the speed of sound.

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><p>The events preceding the incident was so: Hailing a taxi in the fair sized city, Shinichi went directly home, ate a ridiculously large dinner, and went to bed.<p>

In retrospect, his actions we not that out of place. The last thing Shinichi really wanted to do was strain himself; even in his frazzled state he could tell his flipping out much more would be hell to his system, and Dr. Aoi would have his head.

After his last "little" phenomena episode, the sleuth had learned to sit down and think about this kind of stuff. Dr. Agasa was out of town, and he didn't want to bother him anyway. Ai... for some reason he got the distinct feeling it wouldn't be a good idea- at least not yet. Ran was a no-go, because, well, there wasn't a real reason, just he thought it would be best? His final words. Hattori was a candidate too but also not. Kuroba, Hakuba, his parents, the Force, the FBI...Eh, no one really.

Blame the post Showdown paranoia or his overwhelmed mind, but he wasn't thinking straight. Somewhere in the thought pattern the possibility of his being in a coma after sustaining injuries maybe be conjuring this elongated dream... or maybe he had a head cold again and could be expecting Hakuba in a bunny suit dancing to the polka with Kazuha on the Empire State Building. Either way, he needed sleep.

Not that he was tired really, just strained mentally. There was only so much a logic following realist detective could take. Staving, yes, tired not so much. However, he figured he still must be running on the last of the adrenaline dregs of the incident and would crash any second. So taking his pocky and chocolate stash out from under his bed, he settled under the covers to think.

Nothing came. After three plus hours, nothing. Usually when a case went overnight, some of the biggest breakthroughs happened when he was trying to sleep. So what did Shinichi get? Bupkis. Then again, how much could he really deduce from something like that other than he was the fastest man on Earth, could run faster than the normal flow of time, and possibly spontaneously combust and any moment? He stopped thinking after the last point. Closing his eyes, Shinichi fell into a restless, dreamless sleep.

He was only to be awoken five hours later by his cell phone. Blurry-eyed and disoriented, he picked up he accursed device, not even bothering to chck the text's ID.

_I wanted to discuss an important case with you. I will head over to your house and wait outside till you come home. -H_

Hattori. Shinichi heaved a heavy sigh. He hadn't been planning to go to school anyway- it was already two in the afternoon. He wanted some more solitary brooding time to mull it over, but he knew he wouldn't come up with anything. The best thing he could do was to talk to someone he could trust, and Hattori was his go-to guy. Another sigh. This would also require him to put on something more than blue and white checked boxers.

More or less throwing himself out of bed and onto the soft carpet, Shinichi proceed to go through the first part of his morning routine-this time not nearly as rushed. Hell, he may not ever move more than a walk ever again. The shower was invigorating cleaning up his body and mind a bit. Admist his confusion the night previously, he hadn't thought to check his feet for burning damage; it reminded him to do so.

Once out and decent, Shinichi sat on his bed with his legs crossed, first aid supplies spread all around him. It turned out he didn't need them. Under both feet he could see the skin peeling there- but that was like another given day. No skid marks, burns or anything- except for a small, almost invisible white scar outlining. He stared at it, amazed. There was no way it could have healed that quickly. His eyes grew even wider as he could see, almost like watching a movie being fast forwarded, the scar shrinking smaller and smaller until it diappeared.

Shinichi blinked twice and put on his sock.

Now that he was dressed, Shinichi grabbed the shrinking industrial box of pocky to calm his nerves and starvation and a good book-Sherlock Holmes of course. He would expect him to be back at around 3:15, so he would head down then. Just as he felt him self getting nauseous during the high speed boat chase in Sign of Four, the door forcefully swung open, a tall male figure standing in its wake. Shinichi bolted to his feet in a second-probably even less.

"Kudo." Heiji said as he walked through the doorway, his usually care free demeanor nowhere to be found. "We need to talk."

"Hattori," Shinichi resisted the urge to offer some pocky a decided to feign nonchalance, its bittersweet taste he still on his tongue. "I thought you were going to wait outside to talk till I came home to talk about a case?" he muttered.

"Screw cases! This $#!+ is important! Didn't you check your friggin phone?" Heiji snarled. Shinichi shook his head and checked it. There, another text was there, along with Ran's text questioning his absence. There in bold letters, the text said,

**Kudo, we need to talk. Skip school- I'm heading over. Be there- this can't wait. -Hattori**

Well that was mildly concerning. Not only did he get a text from someone else concerning a case, but Ran had noticed his absence. Well of course she would- he'd have to come up with something soon. He most certainly didn't need her on his case now. It probably would have been a good idea to check caller ID as well, but he wasn't too concerned. But he was about his friends' current state.

"I'm sorry, Hattori." He apologized carefully. " What is wrong? It isn't word about Them is it?"

"No." he confirmed in an adamant tone. "They're gone. For good."

"Your family?"

"No..."

"Serial killer with a grudge?"

"No,"

"Is it about... Kazuha?"

"NO! God no! If you would let me finish a sentence I'll tell you!"

Had he been interrupting? "Sorry,"

"It's fine. You're pretty bouncy today though. Looks weird." Heiji gave a dry laugh. "But I need you to take this seriously, and keep in in confidence."

"As always, Hattori, you have my word."

Heiji gave him a sad look with those piercing eyes; the one that said that he really, really wanted to believe what he had just said. After what seemed an eternity, he sighed and settled to lean on the door frame.

"Well, it all started three days ago on Sunday, y'see. I was in the dojo, practicing my kendo sword strike right? Well when I did, I kinda accidently broke the it. Which was weird, because it was a practice sword."

A raised eyebrow. "That is sort of weird- shinai are supposed to act like the real thing, only not hurt right?"

"Tell that to the dummy. Yes, and its only usually are beginners who break their shinai, which is rare in itself. Bokken even less. And katana, never. I broke them all, plus my alarm clock."

"It sounds like you have some anger management issues," Shinichi mused. "A bokken and katana though? Bokken hurt like the dickens, and katana are are REAL swords; could it had been low quality or old steel?"

"One of the biggest things I do is the caring for my equipment, "Heiji explained. "I would know if it was off at all."

"Mmm...Go on?"

"So later that day, after practice, I went to the batting cage. I was just minding my own business, this idiot punk turns the auto-pitcher on the birds. While he was walking off to go get his buddies, he knocked the machine, and it turned on these groups of little kids. So I caught the ball before it could them. Later, after I beat some sense into the little creep, he told me that he fiddled with it to make it go 90mph."

"...And you caught it with your bare hands?" Shinichi's eyes grew wide.

Heiji showed him this palms. "Not a burn, callus, nothing. Even when I caught it, I could, you know, feel the impact. Just not the pain that usually coincides with it."

He let out a shaky breath and continued. "...And there was one last thing too. Yesterday, there was a purse-snatcher. Pretty average, tried to make a break for it down an alley. I chased after him." Heiji didn't notice the wince at his words. "I cornered him at the end wear there was a fence, and he pulled a gun. I told tell him it was stupid and we would be able to track him. He didn't listen."

"He didn't-"

"He shot me. But I didn't feel anything, so I ran up to him and pinned him on the wall. He blacked out instantly, and it left an indention...Through cement."

"H-Hattori..!"

"Oh he's fine now- nothing too serious. Mostly back problems- doc said it was like he fell for a second story window. Good thing he was diagnosed with paranoia and is mentally disoriented. And you know the worse thing?" at this point Heiji's voice had gotten hoarse. "He DID shoot me. He hit me Kudo. Three to the chest. And you know what? I only felt impact again. I have small bruises there, but they're more like a mosquito bites. As for the bullets..." He reached deep into his jeans and produced out a small plastic snack bag. Inside were what remained of bullets they were crushed beyond recognition.

"..."

Heiji rose his head a bit to look at Shinichi, face just as sad as before. "So I have this.. strength. Superstrength, and I can't control it. And now you think I'm insane. Or you're afraid of me." He said tonelessly.

"I-" Shinichi voice got caught in his throat. Was it actually...?

Heiji's former despondent expression grew to that of fury. He rushed up to his face, eyes flashing."Go ahead and say it Kudo! Go ahead! I know already think so myself! But talk to me goddammit or I don't think I'll-" he faltered. The sound of metal cracking was evident in the room. Heiji turned to find a certain tall, blonde, wide-eyed Brit, the handle of a former gardening utensil grasped tightly in his hands.

"Hakuba...What. The *fladdoodling*. Hell... Are you doing?"

"Hakuba...What. The *fladdoodling*. Hell... Are you doing?"

Saguru's ears got beet red as he stammered, "I-I'm sorry Hattori. I didn't know it was you."

"No, really! What the hell man?"

The blonde glared as best as he could through his sheepishness."Well in my defense, for a detective, you sounded awfully hostile. I knew Kudo stayed home from school, which was odd in itself. I didn't know he had any other company, so when I heard yelling from upstairs, I came armed to see what was the commotion. All the door handles I saw were totally mangled, so it suggested someone forced their way in." Shinichi's glared at Heiji. "When I was in the doorway, your back to was to me and your voice was different, and Kudo looked horrified. So I just acted..." He trailed off.

Heiji's face lit up, completely contrasting from the anger you moments before. Trust needed to get beaned with a shovel to snap him back to his senses. "As much as I'd like to kill him at times, Kudo's good. Anyway- hey, why are you looking at me like that?"

"Why aren't you unconscious? I just hit you squarely in the back! You should at least be on the floor!" he raised an eyebrow.

A mutual looked passed between the deteives of the East and West, one that pretty much said, $#!+.

"It's a pretty old shovel," Shinichi told him, hoping to deter from the oddness of the situation. "But since when, H-san, did you start using initials? Now, about that case-"

"I'll speak about that later." Saguru waved it off.

Suddenly Heiji's eyes began getting wide and he looked a bit neverous. "Oi-oi, you two-"

Saguru interrupted him, something very rare for the normaly polite Brit."But Kudo, you mouthed something to yourself. 'Another one'."

"You two seriously may- Gah!" He cut himself off.

"That was just a misunderstanding you see. But you seem a bit stressed Hakuba? Is there something wrong?" Shinichi asked him, turning the tables on him,. It was true too- the usually collected fellow detective seemed a bit pressed. As weird as they were acting- for good reason, mind you- Saguru wasn't doing a good job of feigning his usual psyche in the least.

Saguru ignored both responses, tapping his chin. He missed yet another one of Heiji's protests, sounding an awful lot like a moan. "There was something odd that you said too Hattori.."

Shinichi's guarded expression melted into one of concern. "No you're really getting weird. Maybe you should sit down for a bit- you're sweating."

"That's what it was! '-Strength and I can't control it!'" He pounded a fist into his palm. "Then that would mean..."

"Could you two take a good five seconds to frigging look over here?"

Shinichi reacted first. "What in Holmes' name happened?"

Saguru swung his head over to Heiji's direction. The office chair proceeded to crash into the dark-skinned Osakan in his already awkward position. "Ow..." He moaned. The two Holmes fanatics rushed to help their friend, who accepted the arm gruffly. Then they got a good look at what all had happened while they were arguing and Heiji was warning them about.

To sum it up, the room was a mess. Not that Shinichi was a particularly messy person, quite the opposite; but even on the worst of days it had never looked so... destroyed. Papers from the wastebasket and desk were scattered through the room, along with several of Shinichi's clothes. His drawers were wide open and threatening to tip over at any moment. What few posters of soccer players he had up around the room had long slumped to the floor with their pins. The blinds, previously drawn, were now letting the light of the beautiful spring day pour in. Much to Shinichi's relief, his memoir bookshelf was left almost completely untouched; save for a large pair of dark rimmed glasses at their owners feet.

Heiji had repositioned himself on the wall more casually now. "While you two were having your idiotic circular conversation, I was working my ass off to keep this place from collapsing in on itself. But I think we have a few more, eh, apparent issues now, wouldn't you say Kudo?"

"Indeed. So let's hear about that important "case" of yours Hakuba."

Saguru blinked for a moment, then sighed. He turned to the desk chair, outstretched a hand curling his index finger in a precise beckoning motion. Immediately, the chair slowly moved toward him eerily; when it finally reached him the telepath sighed and took his seat. "I suppose now it's obvious," he began, running a hand through his hair, "To say I have developed these abilities of sort. The main reason I came here was to confide in Kudo."

"Why me?" Shinichi asked.

Saguru shrugged. "After being shrunk into a seven year old, I thought you to all people would understand."

"Point taken."

"I thoroughly already recorded my capabilities in doing so in my log, but I figured you all would appreciate a quick summary. The day that I first noticed it was Sunday, April 14th, at 9:02.64 AM. My room was a mess, and when I tried to clean it, things around me would move as well. I had absolutely no control- things would move as if their own accord- often hitting me in the process. So I sept most the day to keep stuff from moving- they still did, in my sleep.

"The next day, fearing I may seriously injure someone, I took some pens, a glass of water, and a one pound dumbell with me to to the library's rooftop. I was there for hours, 4.8 to be more precise, three of them spend fruitless. I was so frustrated that it wasn't working; I could very well hurt someone if they acted up again-or be thrown in the labs. That's when things started to move again. After a close shave with the custodian on the gound below, I had figured it out.

"If I didn't concentrate, or if an I was in an extreme state of emotion -or solving a case for that matter- I would start to move things without meaning to. But if I kept myself in check; or at least was conscious of all other objects in the room while I was excited I could control it. Whether it was moving it forward or keeping it still. It apparenly as been messing with my mindset as well a bit. I have been a bit weird, I can tell." He said the last with an air of finality.

Shinichi blinked again. Was it natural that he was taking this crazy junk in stride now? "Huh. Well, um, so..."

"You're a telepath." Heiji finished for Shinichi.

Saguru coughed and gave an affirmative. "As far as I know, yes. And seeing as you two are taking this so calmly, can I assume it wasn't matters concerning your girlfiend?"

"Why the hell...? Kazuha is not my girlfriend!"

The blue-eyed detective smirked."Methinks you protest too much..."

"SHUT UP! And no it wasn't. And before you ask, yes, your suspicious are right. Around that time too I got these... can we just call them powers?"

Heiji then went on to explain .his situation to Saguru, who seemed to sink further into his chair as the story went on, and Shinichi stayed completely silent.

Finally when he was finished, Saguru sighed."Near invincibility and superhuman strength. Psychokinesis. You realize we all breaking so many of the laws of nature that were are the greatest phenomena in this universe?"

"Damn straight we are!" through his confusion, Heiji still found time to gloat. He turned to his"But you're taking this much too coolly-even for a former midget. I'm also curious as to why you allegedly mouthed 'not another one'?"

Shinichi's hands raised in surrender. "Okay, you caught me. I'm secretly a reluctant humanitarian space alien undercover species poacher here to kidnap you and make you slaves to state doomed to make kelp flavored pocky for all eternity."

"...How much of that pocky have you been eating Kudo?"

"This, and oh, maybe five other boxes? But I'm all out..." He growled out the last bitterly.

The synchronized sweatdrop could almost be heard from the other boys. "Moving on... Is there anything you have neglected to tell us admist your chocolate high withdrawal Kudo?"

"Just playing therapist till you two were done." He yawned at launched into his tale.

Unlike you two, it began- or I noticed- yesterday, after school. It had started raining and I was so I tried to make a run for it. It felt so good running, but when I looked to the sides, they were all just blurs of light. I was freaking out, so I slowed down to a fast jog. When I did, everything had stopped- People, animals, objects- everything, in mid motion. Even then rain after I looked up. I could feel my sock were the only thing between the pavement and my feet,and I heard a loud boom. I was really freaked out, so I stopped, and this large gust of wind came up behind me. Suddenly, I was completely dry, my feet were burning, and I was in Fuchu after 20 seconds of jogging 24km away from Tokyo."

Heiji's green eyes disappeared in a confused blink. "You- you-you can-"

"From the guy who can stop bullets with his body, I should think this not be too shocking. And this morning, when I has the sense to actually check myself for injuries, there were no burns, skid marks, anything. Just this tiny scare outline, and when I watched it, it actually got lighter, and shrank. Now it's just gone. So when I read your text, Hakuba, I thought it was Hattori. So I just stayed here, thinking, and eating pocky; I've been starving as of late" he mused.

"24 kilometers in 20 seconds?... Oh my god Kudo, you were going at the speed of sound!" Heiji exclaimed.

"That would explain the boom."

"And the healing.." Saguru had adopted his thinking position. "You must have gained a high metabolism as well, which allows your body to heal quickly..."

"And require large about of lipids and carbohydrates to compensate for the energy used." Heiji finished.

"Sounds good to me." the boy replied. Sitting on his bed, he dug around in his pillow until he found his prize- an imported jumbo snickers bar. He began devouring it hungrily. On an after thought, he broke of a piece from he other end and offered it to his friends "Want some?"

Saguru looked horrified. "Kudo, stop it."

Heiji spoke for the both of them. "What is WRONG with you? We have these freaky powers and Hakuba and I are trying to figure them out, and you're acting all blasé!" he demanded an explanation.

Surprisingly, Shinichi's eyes cast downward in shame. "I know. And I'm sorry. But in that one day that I had no bloody idea what the hell was going on I just kinds lost touch. If knew if I stressed, or if I strained myself too much I may get myself sick; I did just get out of the hospital. I purposely chose sweets to eat, because they're chocolate they're so sweet- any you know what they say about chocolate being stress reliever. It gave me the peace of mind to think things out and ask some imporant stuff: what I hallucinating? Apparently not. So if I'm not,what possibly could have caused this? Who would I tell, if anyone, and when? Should I get the government involved?

"When I heard from Hakuba, assuming it was you Hattori, I decided to tell you. I knew you would understand. And when you told me all these things that were happening to you, I couldn't believe it. And once you, Hakuba, showed me what you could do, I was even more shocked that you had a method of controling it. By then the sugar rush was gone, and I could think straight- just not with much emotion. Nonchalant, as you said. So I'm sorry."

"...S'okay man." Heiji nodded.

"I had never given much thought into anything like that." Saguru admitted. He turned to Shinichi, as did Heiji."So, what do we do now?"

It was Shinichi's turn to now be confused. Why were they looking to him? he had no idea what he was doing! Yet, upon looking at their semi-expectant gazes on him, he answered his own question. He was the only one to keep his wits about him; not in the most tactful of means, but it had worked. He probably had been the only one to ask himself such questions. Not to mention he had deal with paranormal junk happening to him before. They needed a direction. A leader.

"...We shouldn't tell anyone else. At least for now. We don't know if these are the full extent of our powers." Saguru and Heiji gave their agreement and beckoned him to continue. "Keep a look out for any suspicous characters-Syndicate like or otherwise. We don't want to get careless and get spotted by the wrong kind of people on either side of the law until we want to. Finally... we need to figure control our powers. It's good that Hakuba learned to an extent- maybe all of ours are triggered my concentration, but I doubt it. But If we can learn, we can be nondescript and not attract anyone's attention. We also don't want to hurt ourselves or anyone else accidently." he decided. he looked up from his thoughts. "Agreed?"

"Sure,"

"Alright."

"Sounds like a plan!"

Saguru raised an eyebrow. "...Kudo of course it does. We just came up with it, remember?"

"Yeah, and I need to get some anger management..." grumbled Heiji in a low mutter.

"What the hell? I DON'T NEED ANGER *FLADOODLING* MANAGEMENT!" Heiji screamed, conflicting with himself.

"Curiouser and curiouser..." Saguru mused and then yelled, "What the bloody hell is happening!"

"I don't know!" Shinichi blinked. "But I do know one thing! Shinjitsu wa Itsumo Hitotsu!"

"Common Meitantei Three! Can you find one measly Magician Friend?" a familiar tenor taunted from somewhere above them; the detectives could almost hear the smirk in his voice.

"THAT'S IT! KUROBA SHOW SORRY MAGICAL ASS DOWN HERE BEFORE I KICK IT DOWN!" Shinichi snarled, recognizing the voice immediately

"Temper temper tantei-kun!" After all this time, Kaito's petname had still stuck to the fully grown detective. "You're getting as bad as hotblodden-kun nowadays." his snickered, sending Heiji into a fit of rage, triggering Saguru's migraine. "Awww, if you keep frowning like that, you'll get those nasty frown lines, like tantei-san!"

That made Saguru scowl even more. "Kuroba you incompetent fool!"

"Love you too tantei-san. And I'm the one who's incompetent?"

"We know your throwing you're voice baka!"

"What makes you say that?" The voice mused, it but repeated the question over and over, overlapping each other to the point it almost sound like an echo; it sounded like it was coming from all different places: the window, the bed, the ceiling, down the hall, on top of Shinichi's head, the wastebasket and more.

"I'm just sad little kaitou, lost and- ack!" Saguru and Shinichi joined him in surprise. The entire floor hand began shaking abruptly rattling their legs and forcing them to seek cover under the desk. It shook for a few seconds while the two paler detectives hid under in fear and amazing as to why their dark-skinned counterpart was still standing, leg raised. He stomped the floor, and he shaking intensified.

After that second wave, a none-too-manly scream could be heard from somewhere in the room followed by a thud. Heiji advanced to near the foot of the bed, eyes closed. They opened with a murderous quality developed in them. "**I. Do. Not. Need. Anger. Management.**" He said every syllable with its own special venom.

There was a moan in response. "How did you find me?"

"Apparently I got superhuman hearing to add to the ability to kick your ass, if only to hear your whining. Now get up." Seeing this as a cost clear, the Holmes fanatics climbed out from under their cover, and cautiously approached either side of Heii, following his gaze to the ground. There was nothing there.

A moment passed, and suddenly there was a light fluctuation in the spot Heiji was glaring at, almost like a mirage. Suddenly there was a shimmer outlining and lo and behold, Magician Friend Kuroba Kaito was sprawled out on the floor, legs entangled by in the floor of the bed in a painful position. "Is it too late to join the Super Club?"

Saguru's eye twitched with a life of its own. "How long have you been listening in?"

"Oh, long enough to hear all you guys' issues, and then some."Kaito grinned, and righted himself on the bed, crossing his legs at the ankle. "Until that one," he jerked a thumb at Hattori, "Decided to go berserk."

Heiji merely smiled toothily. "I told you I didn't need it."

"So you guys can skip your introductions."

Shinichi sighed. He really shouldn't be getting used to this. "Umm, okay so...What can you do?" he felt like an interviewer.

"Well, I can go invisible, duh. Aren't you a detective?"

The said detective glared. "Shut up! Now, when did you get them?"

"Same as you, yesterday after school, while I was practicing some magic tricks. Turned out the bunny wasn't the one that was missing."

By now Saguru had gotten out his notepad and jotted down the responses."Do you have any amount of control over your powers?"

"I had to learn- it was lucky I managed to convince Keiko that it was a magic trick so she wouldn't tell Aoko. So yeah I can. Can't really explain it...You know that feeling when you are playing hide and seek, and someone gets really close to your spot? How you shrink back into the shadows and hope they don't see you? Something like that. I just step into thin air, I guess."

After Saguru gave him a nod, Shinichi continued the interview. "Mood swings?"

"...I'm not pregnant."Kaito deadpanned. "But, um, I guess? Feeling of loneliness? Odd sense of not belonging? Extreme case of boredom? Do any of those count?"

"Other powers we should be aware of?"

"Other than being all around awesome and charismatic? I can just phase though stuff- visible or not. I tend to screw up electronics when I do this. Oh, and I can still hold and grasp things through materials and take things out of stuff, like for example, maybe a priceless gem out of a high-class safe?"

Shinichi quirked a brow; his near twin mirrored him only with a look of innocence. "Any disabilities that you have experienced?"

"Yes, if I am invisible for too long- bout an hour or so, but I'm lengthening it- my vision gets messed up. First haziness, color, then perception. I never went farther than that before. All of these I have only experience when invisible and my vision goes back immediately when I materialize with no side effects."

"Anything else you feel should be brought into our attention?" He internally sighed- he DID sound like an interviewer for the... Super Club...?

Kaito seemed to notice his cousin's exasperation ans grinned besides himself, not mentioning it."Yes. I have been trouble deciding how I should disappear. 'Into thin air'?" he did so and reformed. "Vaporize?" His body seemed to give off a near transparent smoke until there was nothing left, and was scattered in the air. "'Virtual?'" He was enveloped in a green light in the shape of an thin elliptical that disappeared. "'Fade away?" Slowly his body got fainer and fainter until he disappeared into nothingness. "Oh, and of that variant, Cheshire Cat-esque?" his wide grin returned to the peaunut gallery watching the spectacle he was making.

They didn't disappoint. Saguru closed his pocketbook. "Congratulations. You passed."

A silence passed. A mark of friendship really, when people could sit in silence and be absolutey comfortable. Shinichi had brought everyone's favorite snacks he kept a full stock of (they crashed there often enough) and proceeded to clean out his pantry with his appetite in twelve seconds flat. Saguru was reading his Kindle, Ribea and snickerdoodles floating around him on plates. Kaito entertained himself by phasing the ice cream one through his stomach, claiming it cooled him off better. Heiji was having some difficulty handling his chopsticks without breaking them like toothpicks, so he settled on slurping down the octopus whole. Four best friends, just hanging out.

Finally deciding it had been far too long since anything had happened ( a full fifteen minutes, the horror!) Shinichi decided to at least attempt to close their little gathering offically. He grabbed the offical looking binder he had gotten to copie down Saguru's notes and notes of his own.

"Well then, let's go over what was decided today. No speaking of this to anyone, keep a look out for suspicious characters, and gain a better control over your powers. Please, no destruction of the meeting site if it can be avoided." He shot a look at Heiji and Saguru, who glanced back sheepishly.

"Next meeting, please have your personal recordings of your powers, and any theories you may have. Debates about actions will begin two meetings from now, and all of them will be held here four times a week until further notice."

"I, Kudo Shinichi, officially create this circle of freaks and elect fellow freaks Hattori Heiji, Hakuba Saguru, and Kuroba Kaito into the league. May we stand together, destroy together, and spontaneously combust together from this day forward.

"Do we have any other hopefuls?" he paused. "No? Good. Then the first official meeting of The... Super Club is adjourned." He blew a raspberry at the empty confectionary box. "Pass me the pocky please."

"I kinda like "vaporize", but it seems too long. How about a snap to go along with "into thin air"?"

"Hmmm.. Good point Hattori." The magician snaped his fingers and left their sight. His disembodied voice cheered. "Thanks!"

"Trust Kuroba to be concerned with how to diappear." Saguru commented into his Kindle, bemused. "You're so narrsistic."

"I saw you looking in the mirror. Wrinkles coming in alread- OI!" A book sailed through where once Kaito was. Once it cleared through harms' way, He reformed. "Ha ha! You misse- OW!" he book came back like a boomerang, hitting him in the back of the head.

Saguru didn't even look up, but his lip twitched like it almost wanted to smile. Heiji just began to crack up, litterally shaking the bed at his laughter. Shinichi sighed.

So much for things being back to normal.

* * *

><p>As I'm sure you guys have figured out, this concept has been discussed between mousettez and I. What y'all didn't know is that I actually had planned out an entire multi-chap! Bad news is that it's still all in my head! More bad news is that I have another multi going on! Good news... Um I had waffles today? And they were good? Okay okay! They're... Inspiration! The kind that comes up with GB mini plots! Yay!<p>

And if they seem OOC a bit... Good. I was going for it. Cause you know, not all of us take it as well as others. In reality it should have been much darker, but since I kinda flopped on the whole humor thing, I thought poor Mouse-chan needed a break. So you get comic relief!

Shinichi leadership time! Yay!

Well I think I had my say up top, so we'll just paste Dreamer's Kodiak Moments here!

*~*~Dreamer's Kodiak Moments~*~*

Shinichi sitting around, eating pocky /offering pocky, naming the Club.

Heiji NOT NEEDING ANGER MANAGEMENT, still standing during an earthquake while the other two are hiding under a table

Saguru thinking through their Shinichi and Heiji's weirdness and random junk is flying around, saying congratulations

Kaito trying to decide between his disappearances and his interview.

And yes chocolate does relieve stress.

Mm yep. Please review! Pocky anyone?


	8. Most Dangerous Game Night

**Edit 11-10-12**

**So I utilized the magic that is Word and fixed this sorry mess up a bit. I missed some, I'm sure, but its isn't as... pathetic now. Oh, and I messed around with Neko's b bit-not to her knowing, but, seeing as I posses the Ultimate Fate Changing Pen of Destiny, I cal the shots. Blame my geting a 98% in Spanish. .;**

I'M NOT DEAD! *Listens to P!nks Cuz I Can*

I'm back! I've actually have been back for a bit, doing come mincemeat round- cruddy one-shots, badly translating stories into Indonesian (via GoogleTranslate, btw. I'm not that cool -.-) , reviews, the whole lot. But I could never get access to a computer long enough to pull this... So like 46% of this was done on my iPod touch sooo this should be interesting.

11, 286 baby! Longest to DATE! And this one I've been rushing...how did THAT happen...? Regardless, I did it all in crack, and you suckers get to read it! Ha ha ha ha!

This is actually a bit of a joint story...I got quite a deal of help from my favorite artist and Neko Otaku, Fluffy Neko-Chan! She played in the humor (crack) in this! I'm so proud ^o^. But I *technically* wrote it description and spelling and all that fun...eh, let's call it a 75-25. Yeah that sounds right. (Oh you know Inu loves you Neko...) A majority was done back when we were suppose to be practicing lines in Drama..instead ya'll get this. And we STILL rocked the house. Sooo anything cracky in here, you have to blame Neko too ^_^b. Gotta love ulterior motives! Anything to say, Neko?

_Hey everybody! :D so I really had fun working with DD1412 (or as I Like to call her Inu :3) however she really yelled at me for time -_-; but I'm not much of a writer, so hopefully you like my contribution! But you should look me up on ! User name: Tealycat. I haven't posted much but I will be Doing a lot of Drawings for Inu and many more writers! Thanks and enjoy!_

...but mostly for me. She's my Drawing Neko ^_^b

My thanks DetectiveKid-san and Zana-chan for prodding me...Guilt makes me rather productive. So this goes out to you two!

R&R!

* * *

><p>Drabblet #6- Game Night<p>

It was a dark and stormy summer night in the Kudo Mansion. Rain poured down in torrents. It was the rainy season in the Kanto region, and the Kudo home being well into the Tokyo area, the current occupants of the manor were not spared from the tempest.

"It never pours this hard in Osaka," Heiji muttered bitterly, tipping his hat lower over his emerald eyes. "Shoulda just stayed there... I have way better movies than these."

""What was that?!""

The Oskan just eyed down the set of very similar eyes cantankerously. "Did I stutter?"

Apparently deciding that Heiji was not worth the effort, the cousins instead left their friend be, turning their angry glares at each other, and continued their quarreling.

"Holmes."

"Lupin."

"My house."

"My idea."

"Get out!"

"It's pouring!"

"Then dodge the rain, Mr. Magic."

Yes, the famous Kudo Shinichi Ex Conan Edogawa, teen/kid ace detective, and infamous Kaito Kuroba Ex Kaitou kid, master magician/thief, were approaching the hour mark on a very intelligent "loud disagreement" over the very delicate subject of movie choice for a new experiment. The experiment, incited by one particular troublemaker, was to see if the Meitantei Three Plus Magician Friend could have one quiet evening or even gathering in the same place with all hell breaking loose. So far, Kaito's hypothesis was dead on.

"Pfft! Kantos!" moaned Heiji, long since made comfortable on the couch. "Will you two just pick a movie?!"

"Kuroba I can believe causing strife for no good reason, but I expected more from Kudo," The blonde remarked to his fellow settee member on the couch while stirring in precisely 2.8 teaspoons of sugar to his Early Grey and sipped it. "Not bad," Saguru remarked.

What's this?" Heiji said teasingly, "The food snob actually liking someone else's tea? Maybe this storm is more serious than I thought..."

"Oh hush up."

"Hey, shouldn't you be arguing too?"

"Why would I if you aren't, hot-blooded-kun?"

"Don't freaking call me that!" Heiji snarled bad-temperedly. "I mean shouldn't you be on Kudo's side 'cause he's pushing to watch Holmes?"

Shinichi took a break from arguing with Kaito to agree with Heiji. "Good question!"

"Because he has good taste in movie selection?" Kaito mused.

Saguru didn't even look up from his tea. "No, because you don't have the right version. So I don't care either way."

Shinichi faltered "What's your preference then?"

"Anything from produced in 1921 to 1923." The Brit said matter-o-factly.

"...Those were the silent film ones."

"Yes. Better than anything of this age."

Shinichi sweatdropped. "You sound so old."

Saguru grinned wryly. "Ironically enough, I'm the youngest; what does that make you Kudo?"

"Hakuba does have a point there..."

"Shut up Hattori!"

"Now!" Kaito called to the dark-skinned detective melodramatically. "While they're divided." Kaito then changed his voice to a familiar unnatural bass, outstretching an arm in invitation. "Join me, Hattori. We can overrule them and finally watch the majesty that is Arsene Lupin! It'll be beautiful!"

Heiji deadpanned, "No more Star Wars for you."

"I find your lack of faith disturbing."

"I'm not taking any sides. If anything, I should be on Kudo's side since Holmes, though not even close Queen movie status, is still a detective film. But Lupin is interesting enough that I won't vote against it. So I thought I'd let history repeat itself and let the Heisei versions of the two decide."

"Well then, since it's MY house and MY Blue-Ray, we're watching Holmes." Shinichi said decisively.

Heiji and Saguru sighed in relief, happy for a decision. Saguru stood. "Shall I pop some popcorn?"

"I'm getting a blanket." Heiji was freezing.

Raising his hands in either defeat or rage, Kaito glowered at the Three Meitantei, indigo eyes gleaming. "You don't know the power of the dark side!" he bellowed.

Thunder crashed at that exact moment, making the meitantei jump, and the greatest crack of lightning lit up the angry sky through the windows as the four were thrown into darkness. Both the blaring television and all the lights immediately went down and the fell into a silence, room pitch black.

Shinichi broke the silence first, each syllable coated in anger. "Kuroba...!"

"I don't even have to TRY anymore!" laughed Kaito. "Don't fret cousin dear-I haven't hacked into the weather systems yet, thank you very much. That was just some brilliant timing. By the time I heard something wrong, it would be too late. So you guys get to feel the true power of-"

Heiji cuffed the magician lightly, a move so natural that he could do it in the dark. "Oh shut the hell up!"

"Well here's one interesting way to spend the night." Saguru sighed.

"Stay close everyone," Shinichi warned while rising slowly, arms spread to detect anything that his eyes couldn't.

Indigo eyes rolled heavenward. "Yes, so the boogie man doesn't eat- OUCH DAMMIT!"

"-So you don't injure yourself unnecessarily. Oh, by the way, there's a bowling ball bag over there."

"Quite right," Saguru agreed, not even bothering trying to muffle his snickers. "Cat-footed you are, Kuroba. How in the blazes did you slink around us in heists?"

"Who BOWLS in your family?" Kaito questioned through clenched teeth, ignoring the jibe and cradling his poor socked foot gingerly.

"Dad and I took it up in Hawaii." The multi-talented detective answered.

"Of course it was Hawaii."

"What's that supposed to-"

"Before you two start arguing again," interjected Heiji, "Can we get some lights so we at least can be able to watch? Most entertaining thing all night."

"Indeed." Chuckled Saguru.

"This happens every now and then. We haven't gotten around to installing a backup system, but I've gotten prepared over the years. Hakuba, could you reach under the tables? There should be a touch light under each of them."

"Sure."

"But the ottoman is down, so be careful-"

A loud thump sounded, followed by very ungentlemanly words. "You don't say..." The blonde growled.

Rubbing his shin gingerly, Saguru stood, this time taking much shorter strides-a difficult task being so tall. Once he got the hang of it, he maneuvered through the furniture, making his way to the nightstand end table. He crouched on all fours and clicked the button, illuminating the mahogany end table. He did the same with the coffee table and other end table.

He had to squint his eyes, but Shinichi could just find what he was looking for at the outskirts of the light's area. "There it is." He pointed.

"Hattori, see that latch there, in between the panels?"

Heiji rubbed his hands together. "On it." Getting a good grip on the latch, the kendo expert pulled the panel upward with all his might, spreading dust into the air in the process. With a slight grunt, he opened the panel, revealing a complicated lock over the containment unit.

"Oh hell!" Shinichi swore lightly. "This looks like Dad's work. I haven't the key, and never needed to pick one of his customs in years."

Kaito crouched by Shinichi, examining the lock. "Hmm. None too different from my Dad's. Give me a minute," conjuring his custom set of lockpicks (alternating blue and white, of course), Kaito set to work. It was only a minute until Kaito chimed, "Bingo!"

"May I have the honors?" At his friends' agreement, Shinichi opened the old storage unit to reveal it filled with "Nutri-Grains?"

"Real prepared, Kudo." Heiji glared at his eastern counterpart, not that he'd be able to receive it.

"These are a couple years past expiration... Must be Dad's servings of them when Mom was on a health kick. I should have known he'd stash them here." He moved them aside, revealing the true treasures- several flashlights, batteries, crank-able radios and lanterns, matches and candles.

Kaito gave a quick look over the assorted light devices and whistled. "Hell Kudo, you have enough here to last a decade!"

"Ran hates the dark."

"Lucky for that then. Could you pass me a torch please?"

"...What?" Heiji spoke for himself and his fellow Japanese natives.

Mocha eyes blinked, at first not understanding the issue. "Sorry. Flashlight."

"Brits." Heiji muttered, passing the England native a flashlight.

"Now that we've all a flashlight-or torch," Shinichi added the last for Saguru's benefit, " Let's-is that Usa-chan?"

"Usa-chan?" echoed Kaito.

Instead of a reply, Shinichi just dug deeper in the hatch, and when his hand reappeared, a small gray rabbit in overalls was enclosed in his palm, dusty from its time down there. "Usa-chan...I haven't seen you in a long time."

"Don't get sentimental now, Kudo."

"Shut up! This is Ran's bunny from when we were six! She used to have it around. The last time we ever saw it was that big black out when we were eight...she was so devastated that I had to-" Shinichi seemed to realize he was speaking aloud. Had it been the slightest bit dim, the knowing grins on his friend's faces would be clear as day.

"D'awww, tell us what you did for Ran-chan Kudo! Come on!"

Shinichi waved off Kaito's prodding, cheeks a bit warm. "Shove off!"

"Now what to do? It's pouring outside and the roads have probably shut down. I think we'll be stuck here for a while, Saguru, grinning. Only this lot could make him smile-or at least smirk.

"Ask Mr. Fun-Guy." Heiji jutted a thumb toward Kaito, still obvious to the fact that all his gesticulations were redundant, "This was his dumb idea."

"I hate mushrooms..." Kaito muttered. "Hide and seek? This place would be awesome!" He cackled, rubbing his hands together.

"Alright sure. You hide, and we won't look for you."

The magician blew a raspberry. "Why are you all so mean today? Meh! I should go rig some rooms with some surprises!"

Shinichi, far accustomed to being plagued upon by his cousin, was unfazed. "It'll be warmer in the kitchen, and we can set the candles up high so we won't bump into them," He suggested to the other to meitantei.

"Sure," Saguru and Heiji agree simultaneously, still impassive to whatever they did. There were promised a movie and some form of nourishment, and they'd be damned if they didn't get at least one.

"You coming, oh Magician Friend?" Heiji called over his shoulder. "Or are you gonna cuddle a pillow or something?"

Kaito made a grudging negative noise, grabbing the last stash of lights and following dark outline of the kendo star into the kitchen. They met with their slightly more 'proper' counterparts, who were busy setting up the room for their unplanned stay.

Saguru was lighting the last candle of the many that surrounded the room. Most of them where white, but some were red and some scented, some cinnamon apple. The candles were put in smart places that wouldn't be messed over. Shinichi was seated at the table, cranking one of the old fashioned looking lanterns in his lap, and soon it joined the other three pale yellow lamps on the table, one for each of them. He set a flashlight/torch beside each as well. Heiji was digging in the fridge, trying to find something to satisfy their hunger. It was a bad chance of their ordering anything in this weather, so Kaito figured if it was for best. Soon Heiji pulled out a box of pizza victoriously and stuck it in the microwave whole. Shrugging off the initial thought that it may damage the microwave or even the worse, the pizza, doing so, Kaito took a seat at the table.

"Well, isn't this all cozy?" He remarked, looking around the room. Combined with the fancy silk cloth under his fingers, the aromatic candles everywhere, and an insightful pondering Shinichi across the table, Kaito felt like he was in a second-rate fortune teller's mobile home. The wafting scent of slightly burned pizza only increased the feeling.

"Bon appétit!" Heiji said in a ridiculous French accent, setting the pizza box in the center of the table and sitting on Kaito' s left.

Saguru, to Kaito's right, sniffed the air appraisingly. "You let it go for…oh 20.34 seconds too long? And yet mysteriously, the center is cold..."

"It's either that or stave Hakuba," Shinichi said, opening the box. A quarter gone, the extra large pizza had the works, just what Shinichi needed after a long case the day before.

Annoyed as his stomach's pleas for hunger, Saguru took a slice. Kaito did as well, making sure to make a show of getting the cheesiest, gooiest piece and eating it like he did spaghetti, slurping grease that escaped his mouth. Saguru said nothing, avoiding looking at Kaito, instead closing his eyes and taking a bite. "At least it's not peanut butter..."

Heiji, after claiming the three largest slices for himself, justifying "I'm a growing boy!" announced he needed to use the restroom.

Shinichi was distracted by the cheesy goodness of the Italian fast-food swallowed a morsel before directing his friend in the right direction.

"Through that doorway, straight to your left," He pointed behind him, through another door they hadn't come in through.

"Be back then," Heiji stood, sauntering in that direction.

"Okay, but be careful the-" He was cut off but the sound of a loud crack, and so words so foul mouthed, Gin would have been taken aback.

"$#!+! #$%*&!"

"Cabinet door may be out..." The brunette detective sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Does ANYONE know the meaning of careful?"

"Maybe if this bloody house wasn't cursed we could be more careful," Saguru mumbled, shinbone still smarting.

Kaito absentmindedly shuffled some cards, contemplating this. "Do ghosts bowl...?"

"Oh no, I could have just given myself a freaking concussion, and y'all are just going to stand there while I'm sprawled on the floor, seeing freaking STARS. Sure, that's cool!"

"Not so dazed to complain," Saguru pointed out, starting off to assist his fallen friend.

Kaito just snickered, retrieving the Osakan's lucky hat, dusting it off a bit for good measure. "Oh you're head is hard enough for there not to be any real damage,"

"You better not have dented my damn door though..." Shinichi warned, offering an arm to his eastern counterpart.

Heiji's eye twtiched as he hoisted himself up with the arm; how many times had he ended up on the floor hurt whenever he was with these guys? He'd be safer chasing criminals... "Gimme that," He snatched his hat from Kaito, carefully setting back atop his head, backwards of course. "The HELL is in there anyway?"

"...Actually, I kind of forget. Don't come around this part of the house much anymore. So I'm not sure."

Saguru eyed the tall cabinet door, stopping at eyelevel, roughly 6 feet. "Huh, I wonder what's in there?"

"And you're supposed to be the Meitantei Three...Holmes and Queen are crying right now..." The magician looking close to

"OI!" The sleuths growled simultaneously.

Kaito made like he was thinking very hard about something, even stroking the skin above his upper lip like he had a mustache. Apparently having a breakthrough, he snapped his fingers. "Hey here's a bright idea! If ya want to know what is inside of the cabinet, why doncha, oh, I don't know open it?!" At the glares he received, Kaito amended, "Oh amazing, ingenious, not-as-awesome-as-me Meitantei Three. Hey, that rhymed!"

Rolling his eyes, the Brit mused, "Oh, but I'm sure that thinking styles works well for breaking in to world class safes, doesn't it Kuroba?"

A wink. "You bet!"

"Well I want to know what gave me a headache, so let's find out." Heiji grasped a brassy handle.

"Oh no, I could have some personal items in there I don't necessarily want seen by everyone, and you all are just going to invade my privacy after I fed you cold deep dish. Sure, that's cool!"

Saguru smirked. I never said anything about opening it, but since you're accusing me anyway, here you are Hattori!" He handed a torch to his outstretched hand.

Heiji smiled wider than he did all that evening after thanking Saguru. "Glad ya think so Kudo!"

"...Unless you have a skeleton in there Kudo?" Kaito raised an eyebrow

"Yeah, and it's about to be all you guys'." Shinichi deadpanned. "But I guess it can't hurt."

With a bit of theatric flair (a detective and magician sort of thing...) Heiji threw open the large cupboard door, joining the three other circles of lights. One started moving aimlessly.

"~Who ya gonna call?~"

After swatting Kaito upside the head again and repossessing his flashlight, Heiji rejoined the other searchlights in illuminating the dark containment unit. Stacked to the very brim were hours' worth board games of every color, age, and size. The largest of games were on the bottom, until they pyramided to the traveling sizes of the bigger games. A small shelf separated from the normal games held decks of cards, bags of dice, containers for poker chips, a little cup of coins for tie breakers, notepads, and pens. They all shared one thing in common though: An even thin blanket of dust had settled on them all, not touched for the past several months, maybe a year.

The three brunettes and blonde shared a glance; after all they had been through, they knew when something was unanimous by a mere shared look. Shrugging, each teenager took an armful of games and accessories, soon emptying the cabinet, and deposited them on the table. They set aside 6 or 7, intending to play a couple of them twice just so not all of them had to be out. It was decided that after their pizza was finished they would start playing. They were all actually pretty excited-none of them had played these in years and it seemed like a fun way to spend the rest of their evening. A couple of laughs and stories about childhood misadventures were even exchanged, and the mood was lightened significantly. It was so nice, Shinichi even thought about doing it again, how pleasurable it was.

After all, what could possibly go wrong?

* * *

><p>~Scrabble~<p>

"Hattori. For the last time, "Batman" is not in the English Dictionary!"

"How the hell is Batman not in the dictionary and whatever the hell that word you put is?"

"The same way you are o-b-n-o-x-i-o-u-s." He pointed to the convenient word on the early filled board. "Ah, here's another: b-a-r-m-p-o-t."

"That's an exclusively British term!"

"And you point in dramatizing over this is...?"

"We're Japanese you prick!"

"This game is in English!"

"I DON'T GIVE A DAMN!"

Sipping their juice boxes, Shinichi and Kaito took their turns while Saguru gave Heiji countless foul cards for his words. They had been sitting there for quite some time, watching the two argue as one would a tennis match, occasionally ducking to avoid flying scrabble tiles.

Kaito bit into his cookie and licked the corners of his mouth in concentration. "...C-a-t." He clapped his hand excitedly and crossed his arms, quite pleased with himself.

"A-i-n-t."

"Contractions do not count! 'Ain't', Saguru said the contraction like it left a bad taste in his mouth, "Is not even a word! I-n-c-o-n-s-p-i-c-u-o-u-s."

Shinichi sighed. "C-a-t-a-s-t-r-o-p-h-e. Pass me another juicy box, Kuroba."

While passing the festively colored drink to his cousin, Kaito raised an eyebrow. "You know that's more than seven letters. "D-o-g."

"C-a-r-p-e-t-b-a-g-g-e-r."

"THAT'S NOT A WORD!" Heiji screamed, pointing a dark-skinned fingering in the Brit's face. "You hypocrite!"

Glaring down the digit, Saguru batted the finger away." Before you even think of calling me out for an existence foul, expand your dictionary more than the likes of 'snuck'-"

"...I always thought it was snuck...?" Kaito mused aloud impulsively, and immediately regretted it.

Saguru turned his death aura on his Magician Friend, near seething. "Sneaked. It's. Sneaked."

"R-right..."

"And carpetbagger refers to the American Civil War period."

Heiji pffted knowingly. "Trust the Brit would know about the States. Still sore 'bout getting your ass whooped by the Yanks, G-e-e-z-e-r?"

The smug smirk faded. "WHY YOU...!"

Shinichi smirked wryly. "Like Hakuba will notice-he just set down a twelver. Besides, Hattori declared a double letter count. Those two will be at the other's throats. D-o-g-m-a-t-i-c."

Kaito shook his head at his cousin's antics "You're such a G-e-e-k."

"P-e-r-s-n-i-c-e-t-e-y." Saguru played.

"Damn straight you are...and that's too long! B-o-b!"

"No proper nouns!"

"YOU'RE A PROPER NOUN!"

"I KNOW I AM YOU PRAT!"

Shinichi looked like he almost wanted to smirk. "You're doing it too D-u-m-b-a-s-s."

"S-h-u-t-u-p."

Out of nowhere, a foul card was thrown at Kaito's forehead; the force was so hard it knocked him off his chair and left a glowing red mark. "FOUL KUROBA!"

"DAMMIT!" the magician wailed, tools of magic and deception flying everywhere as he went down.

Shinichi set the last of his tiles triumphantly. "I-r-o-n-y"

~Uno~

"...Do it..."

"Wait Hakuba, it's too risky..."

"He HAS NO CHOICE! I put down the card... Therefore he must push the button..."

Shinichi's face pale, stared at the demented machine. If he pushed that button, there was a fifty-fifty chance that he would be pelted with the rainbow-colored Cards. There was static as indigo, mocha, and emerald eyes watched as Shinichi's unsteady hand outstretched toured the death-trap.

"C-Careful Kudo...!"

A beep was heard as the button was pushed. Then the three mententi in the room heaved a heavy sigh of relief as no cards exploded out of the monster.

"Awww man!" Kaito pouted, "But I WILL get you back for pulling that 'change to yellow' card...I coulda had-"

"UNO!" Saguru yelled, shocked as the three teens staring in disbelief.

"…that sounded so white you wouldn't even know…"

"…"

Shinichi set down his final card. "…Uno?" he said sheepishly with a bit of an accent.

Heiji and Kaito just looked at each other, grinned, and shook their maracas that appeared out of nowhere. "UNO!" They shook Shinichi's hands at this great success, and proceeded to toss the Uno cards in the air like anyone would confetti. "_Felicitaciones!_"

The dark-skinned detective nodded at his lighter counterpart. "_Mucho mejor que el Prick Inglés!"_

_"En efecto." __Kaito _agreed, then switched his attention to Heiji specificly._ " __¿Cómo está tu madre?"_

_"Ella está bien, gracias por preguntar. Así que dime ...?"_

The two went on like that with their jolly Spanish conversation like that, while Shinichi and Saguru looked on, jaws dropped. _"Wait, time out!" Shinichi _gestured to the two apparently multilingual teens._ "Ustedes saben español?" _Shinichi said, pleasantly surprised, and smiled._ Yo hablo español también!"_

Saguru could have been knocked over with a feather.

Heiji nodded, using some animated hand motions. "Sí mi primo políglota me enseñó mucho de Inglés y Español." He shrugged at Kaito. ¿Cómo sabe que es un misterio..."

_"Es verdad."_ Kaito admitted, smiling.

_"Bueno, esto es muy épico ..." _Shinichi chuckled, gesturing to Saguru, who had sort have just been staring at the table. _"Mirar a el rubio..."_

Saguru, had he not been completely outnumbered, probably would have been a bit more snappy, but seceded into his own little English corner._ "Je ne parle pas espagnol," _He muttered the last under his breath. _"Fils de pute prétentieux…"_

Kaito danced over to him and momentarily switched his accent to another of the romance languages, chastising Saguru's less than polite reply_. Pas très gentleman de vous garçon anglais!" _he patted Saguru's back and turned to his Japspanglish friends._ "Ahora, ¿quién quiere churros?" _He held up the delicious cinnamon Mexican treat.

_"Que hago!"_

_"Non merci," _Saguru huffed, turning to his parfait.

~Monopoly~

"Tsk, tsk tsk Hattori, resorting to cheating are we?"

"What the hell you hypocrite? You suck as the banker! Why the hell did you give me my GO $200 in ones and fives you idiot!?

"That's private banker's information that I cannot disclose to you. If we don't trust you with our pens, chaining them down, why would I tell you that? Why do you have a hotel on Marvin Gardens?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe because I BOUGHT it?"

"You~can't~do~that~" Kaito sing-songed.

"And who the hell says I can't?"

"I do! I own Atlantic Avenue and Ventnor Avenue and don't have any hotels! You can't get hotels until you own all the property of the same color!"

"Says the guy who has pink freaking fifties you LIAR!"

"Hakuba, you're a fuddy duddy for rules! Enlighten the broke cretin!"

"WHAT DID YOU JUST-"

"Page three, section two, paragraph five-Hotels." Saguru interjected, straightening is reading glasses on his nose. "When a player has four houses on each property of a complete colour-group, they may buy a hotel from the Bank and erect it on any property of the colour-group. They return the four houses from that property to the Bank and pay the price for the hotel as shown on the Title Deed card. Only one hotel may be erected on any one property." He shut the booklet and took off his glasses, looking at Heiji with almost an expression of regret. "Much as I hate to agree with the bastard, Hattori, he is right."

"Damn straight!"

"That's stupid! The way I was taught is WAY better! You just bought a hotel on whatever property you had three houses on! The game will take, like, 2 hours now!" Heiji moaned.

"The average Monoply playing time is four hours. Why else do you think people hate this game genius?" Shinichi jeered.

Heiji looked baffled. "...what's that supposed to mean?"

Kaito patted began to pat Saguru's back in thanks when he shoved it away. "Don't touch me!" Saguru hissed at the magician. "I only read the rules. It wasn't for your benefit you backstabbing cad!"

"Aww, you're still not sore about what happened on on Baltic, are you?"

"I had one bloody house on there! That's it! And when you landed on it, what did you do? Bought it COMPLETELY out! And the entire reason why I even was in that crap situation is because I was stupid enough to sell Virginia Avenue to help you, thus helping the both of us! I had been nothing but NICE to you...!"

"And you're mad because...?"

"You backdoored me after we made an alliance!"

Kaito's happy go lucky grin was plastered on his face unnaturally. "That was before you took the racecar from me. Things. Changed. "You do **_NOT_** take the racecar from one Kuroba Kaito. EVER. So maybe it was a bit personal that time...Can't say that I'm sorry though!"

"Wait hold up! You two had an ALLIANCE?! No wonder Kudo and I had such crap luck!

"What I want to know is why you landed me in Jail?!" Shinichi growled at Heiji.

"The HELL?! Is that what you're pissy about? That had nothing to do with me! You own crap luck of the draw! "

"No, because if you weren't such an IDIOT to sell the Electric company to the Prick-"

"I resent that!" Saguru snapped, breaking away from his own loud disagreement with the magician.

"I wouldn't have landed on that spot, and gotten hit with such a hefty fine! And you turned around and bought my property!"

"That's the game Kudo! Get over it!"

From there the teens began their petty arguing, and just when things started to escalate to a Monopoly Battle Royale, Heiji, for once the one not completely pissed, ended discussion completely. "SCREW THIS GAME!" He overturned the board furiously, sending the little figurines and rainbow of bills to the floor. Not even a second passed before his friends began arguing again,

"**EVERYONE SHUT THE FREAK UP AND CALM THE HELL DOWN!**" Three sets of eyes trained on the Osakan who had by now stood, glowering down at the table. It was the best conciliatory moment-or at least conciliatory for Heiji's standards-for the group as they all fell silent.

"..."

"Don't you see that this is tearing us apart?!" Blue, mocha, and indigo eyes all alike could not meet his pissed off emerald. "It is a freaking GAME! Hakuba, you were stupid enough to trust Kuroba, Kuroba you're being a petty little pansy over a freaking game piece, Kudo, you're just bitter 'cos I wisely decided to take advantage of the board in your 'absence', and I'm generally pissed at the LOT off you being that I am the peace maker! Do you know how bad it has to get when I step in?!"

"…Yeah, that's sad if you recognize it's getting out of hand..."

"He's right..."

"This madness has to stop."

"I know I'm right, you imbeciles! Now, Kuroba, Hakuba, apologize!

"...I'm sorry for conning you...and backdooring you...and switching out your tea with-never mind!"

"And I'm sorry for taking your...racecar away from you."

"It's okay," Both boys said in unison, feeling like they were a decade younger after a playground fight.

Heiji felt a decade older as he oversaw this happen, nodding approvingly. "Good. Now, hug it out."

""WHAT?!""

"I don't stutter. That's what Kaasan always made me do after a fight."

"Bet you like Toyama-san's hugs very much then..."

"Don't test me Brit. Do it, or it will be living hell for both of you." he crossed his arms, making it very clear to the rivals that somehow, someway, he would make good on his promise.

Still a bit chagrined at the notion, Kaito and Saguru were man enough to let their stupid argument die. The actual delivery of the makeup hug was overall manly and graceful, as each were stubborn to keep their generalized personal notion of manliness intact. Still, with a familiarity only know to people who had done such a gesture before, they hugged and made up. Only lasting a second or two, it started off like your average handshake, but each young man wrapped their left arm around the shoulder of the other and slapped their back twice.

Once they pulled back, Saguru quickly pulled Kaito into one of his practiced judo headlocks, though with not nearly as much force. "You're still a slippery fraud though, and I won't forget this, sorry or no." Saguru declared with a haughty air of superiority. He only needed one arm to do the job.

"Hakuba you jerk!" Kaito wrestled, trying to break free, all the while merrily. "Haven't you heard of forgive and forget?"

"Have you heard of 'uncle'?" Saguru counted, making it clear he had no intentions of letting the magician off easily.

"Never in my life. " Kaito grinned like a madman, not one to give up so easily. "Monopoly: Ruining Friendships Since 1903."

Shinichi and Heiji had to chuckle at the scene, but before long, their gazes found the other Both sheepishly chuckled, too proud to outright apologize, but to man-hug without prompt, an action competed near identical to Kaito and Saguru's.

"I still won though," Heiji couldn't resist saying to Shinichi, knowing the other two competitors weren't listening. "Good try, Sport."

"Pfft! I had more money than you even in jail! Just...not enough to get out." Shinichi boasted, closing his eyes and turning up his nose.

"Oh really? Well, here's some bail!" Before Shinichi could react, Heiji threw a fistful of multicolored bills in his face, smirking.

Shinichi raised an eyebrow before throwing an armful of the colorful currency back at Heiji. "No, why don't you pay your rent!?"

Kaito, now released from Saguru's iron grip, quickly caught on and got a snowball sized wad to match the blonde.

Heiji, seeing a beautiful opportunity to actually make Monopoly it a legit fight, bellowed, "MONEY FIGHT!"

~Clue~

"Okay," Kaito reasoned slowly, feeling much like he was in a lion's den. "This can go very, very, badly if we don't-"

"-It was Miss Scarlett in the Conservatory with floss, a can of cat food, and roll of tape due to her schizophrenic illness rooting from her sexually abusive second stepfather who brainwashed into thinking he was her pimp, and he was the victim's fling." said Shinichi

"Professor Plum in the Lounge with a Newton's Cradle, earbuds, and spatula for the Blood Tide cult, though he was only meant to wound her, as the victim was the cult leader's adopted child, and killed them out of jealousy feeling a failure as the leader's actual son." said Heiji.

"Colonel Mustard in the Study with nail polish, sunflower seeds, and a globe as a murder for hire once choosing to go with the victim had been molested the gang he had participating in and was therefore impure to a twisted religious outlook on the subject of dating." said Saguru.

"...Ms. White in the kitchen with a revolver..." Kaito mumbled. "Wait, how did you even get all that?" He looked down for his sorry excuse of notes-chicken scratches and several games of tic-tac-toe with himself. The other boys had filled three sheets of detective's notes, filled to the brim with neat, legible, detailed notes. "Something has to be wrong if you guys got answers like-"

"""I'm right.""" A terrifyingly calm stare that would stop a small animal's heart was directed at the magician, who only smirked slightly.

"You guys are going to let a child's board game decide your honor as detectives, aren't you?"

His only reply was each detective's launching into more detailed explanations for their deductions, somehow hearing the others only enough to criticize their deduction. Kaito only bothered to try to follow along for eight seconds-it was soon clear that anyone with an IQ of at least 120 would be needed to be able to catch it any of it. The problem wasn't Kaito's intelligence-you didn't become an international grand thief being an idiot-he had just ran out of cares to give. He could very well give an in depth overview of all the cases theories, but true to his nature, it was far too boring to grace the circular rubix cube that was his mind. So he just sort of zoned out and let them have their loud debates.

After tuning them out for some two and a half hours, by then all his math class pranks schemed, something caught his eye. In the instructions they never opened (real men didn't need instructions was the group's accepted practice, especially the three detectives for Clue.) were small envelopes. Since they ignored his staged choking episode he knew they didn't care what happened to him, so long as he shut up and let the detectives talk.

In girly handwriting were several people's names on the envelopes: Hakase, Ran-chan, Sonoko-chan, and his name...Kai-chan. Already predicting who the author of the note was, Kaito unfolded the envelope at read its contents.

_Kai-chan_

_I see you got roped into playing Clue with my Shin-chan somehow ^o^b. Don't know how you saw this ending well, competitive as he is XP. I figure Hei-chan is playing too, since you need three players at minimum, and that nice Guru-chan too? Oh that's so SWEET :D! You think you could take some pictures, or...sorry .._

_Anyway, Yuu-chan decided to...update the old Clue Cards, as you can see... Something about Shin-chan not being challenged enough, but he makes them sooo hard T_T! But he composed them of different scenarios from his own experiences and cases, and of Shin-chan's six, seven hundred. So this may take you a while...XO_

_I know Toi-chan taught you a thing or two, Kai-chan, so I'm sure you can find a way to make this fun for you all! My decorating taste is far superior to that of boring old Tudor Mansion so please TRY not to let this end as a real life Clue..._

_XOXO_  
><em>~Yukiko-Oneechan d^o^b<em>

'Yukiko-obasan, peppy as ever.' Kaito mused, rereading the letter quickly. His eyes hovered over the last few words. 'A real life Clue...?' A smirk.

Some odd minutes later, after Kaito had excused himself to the restroom, Heiji had the question during crossfire-after the first pen was thrown, it was decided to return to proper debate protocol. "And I told YOU it's-Why." Heiji didn't even have to explain, what with the faulty foam bullet lodged in his cranium, red colored water spilling from the fake wound. Shinichi and Saguru were slower to pick up on it, apparently never engaged in Nerf wars with the sniper-like magician in Assassin.

Voice airy and sugary like cotton candy, the man-woman announced, "Ms. White," His disguise was eerily familiar to that of one maid, Mizuki Seto, generous...figure and all; it worked well as a young version of Ms. White. He gestured to the room. "In the kitchen, with a revolver." He blew off the still smoking gun and winked, pushing blonde bangs out of the way. "I must say, this did make things fun! And it's just cuter this way. I win!"

"...Make Kuroba come in last?" Saguru offered his fellow detectives. All hands save for one manicured raised. "Unanimous."

Heiji nodded. "Sounds like a plan to me."

Shinichi brought the scoreboard they'd just been arguing about. "Magician Friend...Last." he wrote.

Kaito just huffed and flipped his hair. "Whatever, I'm cuter than the lot of you."

"You just keep telling yourself that. Whatever stops the tears." Saguru said, turning over his hourglass for his turn for the second rebuttal to the rigor mortis debate.

~Candyland~

"I cannot believe you even HAVE this, never mind our actual playing this..." Saguru moved his plastic yellow gingerbread man to a purple space.

Kaito actually giggled and clapped his hands. "When I grow up, I wanna be a Candyland Kid and go to Candy Mountain!"

"Stealing candy from the world one baby at a time. You DO know there is no Candy Mountain in the game or in real life though, right?

"Shun the non-believer!" Kaito pointed a finger at Saguru. "SHUN!" He turned his back on the blonde, instead chant-singing a quaint little ditty, with the words "Candy Mountain and Candy" repeated several times.

"Yeah. Okay then..."

"Oh Hakuba, you're just pissed that you got sent back to Plumpy when you were all the way up and Licorice Castle..." Heiji laughed, moving his green gingerbread man. "At least you made your way back to Princess Lolly-wait how the hell did you get Queen Frostine Kudo?"

"Being seven again has some advantages..." Shinichi smiled smugly as he moved his red piece to the ice cream themed land. He cocked an ear to his playing IPad that had been playing from an internet music station for a while "Huh, that's odd. It's that song from the awards ceremony."

Kaito stopped bouncing, settling for vibrating so he wouldn't bite of his own tongue speaking. "It's in English! Shouldn't we only get Japanese stations though?"

Shinichi shrugged, fiddling with the discarded cards. "Yeah, Kaasan dragged me out to California for this awards ceremony. This song's music video won, so I remember it. Ah, that's better."

Heiji waved him off not caring for the station. "Whatever, once I draw a blue and get off this stupid stuck space, you guys are screwed!"

"YOU'RE ALL JUST JEALOUS CAUSE I HAVE MORE SUGAR PLUMS!" Kaito exploded, laughing maniacally and raining red, yellow, green and blue gumdrops on the board from his seemingly empty palms. He then proceeded to literally bounce off the walls, clinging to the ceiling and somehow crawling around like he had some adhesive on him.

Everything went quiet after the outburst, the Three Meitantei for once not knowing what to do. Finally, Heiji said very seriously, looking the magician in the eye, "Thank you."

Saguru didn't even raise an eyebrow the whole time; he had weathered much worse highs from his classmate. He was actually the one who suggested they take cover under the table upon braving the unexpected confectionery storm. Who knew what Kuroba was doing up there. Still, he looked at Shinichi for an explanation. It was easier to put off stuff on the Detective of the East, it being his house.

"Sorry everyone," Shinichi confessed, sighing. He stuck a hand out the table's cover as if checking for rain, and immediately a box of rock candy sticks landed in his palm. "Sweet..." He murmured, retreating back into the table, and continued with the hard candy in his mouth. "Back when the Detective Boys were very young-like just barely hitting four or five- Genta always had trouble playing-"

"Who has trouble playing CANDYLAND?" Kaito buzzed, shaking the table with his river dancing upon it. "It's colors!"

Heiji shifted uncomfortably. "...Leave the kid alone...!"

Saguru snorted. "And here I thought this was a suitable game for you to play after failing so miserably at three-dimensional chess Hattori..."

"That's 'cause you're a crap teacher! I don't give a care, they're called the horse, castle, pinhead and lackeys."

"Knight, rook, bishop, and pawns you fool!" Saguru hit his head on the table-bottom in his annoyance, earning a snicker from Heiji.

Shinichi bit into his treat. "Anyway, each time they got the color right, their mothers would give them a gumdrop of the corresponding color. So I kept a sticky note to remind me. I had an entire jumbo bag, and it's all gone!"

A gold cellophane wrapped candy fell on the box on the floor by Saguru's foot. Grabbing and examining it for a while, the Brit smiled lightly, unwrapped the sweet, and popped in his mouth. He sighed, relishing one of his favorites. "Mmmm...nougat. Oh, what's this?" he picked up the top of the Candyland box. "Looks like you have more than sticky notes in here Kudo..."

"Let me see?" Heiji asked, receiving the cardboard rectangle from his friend. "Huh, ¥3400 Yen in here Kudo!"

Shinichi flinched. "Crap...you weren't supposed to find that... I always keep a bit of money in there for minor emergencies, like running out of candy for the kids. But after a while, I made a weird habit of dropping my single dollar bills. I've been meaning to clean it out when I changed back, but it just didn't happen. I didn't know it was that much though."

"A Candyland Cashe. What has this world come to?" Saguru moaned. "You were my last hope Kudo..."

"I didn't mean to!" Realizes how pathetic that sounded, Shinichi added weakly, "It just piled up and-what are you doing Hattori?

"Raiding your Candyland Stash of Cash," he replied, shamelessly collecting the money, licking his finger then the bills to make sure none were stuck next to each other. "You owe me from last week." At Shinichi's reproachful argumentative glare, Heiji pressed, "Oh, so are you admitting that this money was never intended to be collected, rather to be kept in you Candyland box for safekeeping?"

"...I confirm nor deny anything." he growled through gritted teeth, "Just shut up and take my money, idiot. We're even now."

Heiji had a little Kaito-esque giggle himself, pocketing the hard cash gleefully. "Don't know about you guys, but I'm liking this game! I'll have to play Candyland here more often!"

Their sugary game resumed, minus Magician Friend who still on the rampage, shaking the table as if they were in a 7.9 earthquake, singing show-tunes. Despite his efforts, Saguru couldn't bridge the gap between him and the Detectives of the East and West; the two came down to a near tie. A fight almost broke out; Heiji insisting it was stupid as hell that one was required to draw a purple card to win, instead drawing orange-coincidentally his most hated color-and arguing that any color would win. Evidently in newer versions the final space was a rainbow color. Young 'children' would get easily frustrated at the idea of a non-immediate win, and the game-makers would not have this in mind for him pardon-the "children".

Shinichi, drawing purple right after Heiji, argued against it. He brought the point that the rules of this game were for that version only, and also played the "my game, my rules card" and declared himself winner. In the end, as usual, Saguru had to be the referee. The ruling was that the reason why they were so irritable and combative was because their necks being sore from being under the table so long. Since Shinichi was the one who introduced the idea of eating candy while playing Candyland to Kaito, thus putting them in the position, was ultimately at fault. Therefore he would to atone for his iniquity to the rest of the players by stepping down.

Initially, Shinichi was rather pissed at the ruling, but in the end found comfort in his not winning. He twirled his pocky around. "Congratulations then, Hattori. You won a color recognition children's board-game against your fellow grown-ass young men, one of them a child twice."

Heiji, in spite of this very true remark, told Shinichi to go do something very rude and then stuffed his face with chocolates of all kinds. Saguru idly watched the show, enjoying his nougats and bonbons. Shinichi was quite satisfied with his rock candy, and was ecstatic at the discovery of pocky in the mess of sweets.

It was the unanimous, unspoken decision to take a sugar break and listen to the music filling the room, making casual conversation. Kaito even came off his high and put hand his head over the edge to look at his un-magical friends, scaring the daylight out of them. After the miniature heart attack and poking fun, the four resumed their usual conversation, talking about anything and everything, eating their favorite treats. A truth behold, they all were in a good mood.

After about an hour or so, Kaito, minor sugar rush dregs gone, passed out cold on the kitchen table, a multitude of assorted wrappers, sticks, and half eaten candy canes and beheaded sour punch kids strewn all around him. It was easy for the detectives to see the magician off guard, what with his sleep talking conversation with himself and King Kandy, and there was talk of getting back at the prankster. Even at the cost of swift retribution Regrettably, Heiji, Shinichi and Saguru were all too lazy to leave their oddly comfortable positions under the table. They were a bit sugar high as well. But soon after Kaito checked out, the Meitantei Three dozed off as well.

Several golden wrappers had made their home around Saguru, the slightest bit of caramel and nougat stuck to his upper lip. He'd made his home in the bag of caramels, cuddling and utilizing it as a pillow. Arms beside his ears and head tilted so slightly to the left, he looked like he was free-falling. His deep steady breathing-borderline snoring-gave the impression of almost inhaling the tooth-rotting goodness.

Heiji favored milk chocolate in any form, no questions asked. He felt even richer when gold coin chocolate rained down from the kitchen heavens, as if a leprechaun had been mugged, and became his literal money nest. Combined with the gummy worms stuck to the more chocolate stained parts, it looked like a clew of worms had made their home in his jacket. He slept like a log, on his side, chocolate bar to his lips as if he wanted just one more bite before having his unplanned nap. His chainsaw snoring did little to disturb his friends.

Hips and legs not under the table like his friends, Shinichi's head was buried in his arms face first, facing the other two. His positioning suggested he'd fallen asleep while saying something; had his eyes been open, his expression would have been the same as his waking. In the small gap where he rested his head were what looked to be a gem field of rock candy, unwrapped and ready to eat. Half eaten pocky sticks were stuck in his hair.

The four slept like that for a good hour or so, wiped out from their highs. Kaito eventually fell off the table, curled into the fetal position and discussing the economic benefits of growing a gummy cherry field with Princess Lolly. He was also the first to awaken, blurry eyed and confused as to what they all were doing on the floor asleep. However, after taking in his surroundings a bit more, Kaito gave a lazy smile, not quite understanding the situation, but liked how it looked.

"Candy Mountain IS real!"

~Poker~

Saguru looked at Shinichi.

Shinichi looked at Heiji.

Heiji looked at Kaito.

Kaito just looked amused.

The longest silence yet.

"...This is ridiculous!"

"For once, I have to agree with you. This is impossible!"

"Show hands?"

"Fine you wusses. One, two, three!"

Immediately the four threw down their hands and were amazed at the other's hands. They all had a royal flush; each neatly ordered from the all powerful ace to the 10. Saguru held the diamonds, Heiji the clubs, Shinichi the hearts and finally Kaito with the spades.

"""...What?"""

The magician played with his ace, his head resting gently on his hands in a bemused body language.

"My my, what a lovely Pokerface you all have!"

"You. Rigged. IT?"

"You mean I just set down my month's wages for a game that was FIXED?"

"HELLO? Ex Master Thief versus loud mouthed detective? Who do you THINK would win?"

"Unless he was scared..."

"In your Osakan dreams."

"But since we all lost...we all have to pay up!"

"We never did any-WHAT THE HELL?

The signature "poof" was heard, taking both the detectives hopes of their black out game night ending on a normal note, and that they could leave magically unharmed. Once the smoke subsided, azure, mocha and jade eyes grew wide at the sight. Indigo eyes alight, the magician spread his arms widely in a "Look at me in my beautiful glory mortals!" gesture.

"That escalated quickly."

"...Kuroba...?" Saguru said warily.

"Mmm? Why, yes, my dear tantei?"

"...your hair is blue..."

"Correction: it's neon cerulean. Get it right."

Heiji looked close to losing his left eyebrow, much as it was twitching."Fine, why is your hair CERULEAN?"

"Hattori, Hakuba, Kudo, I'm going to tell you something very important."

"Alright...?"

"Every and any question you ask about the enigma that is one Kuroba Kaito, the answer is always this:"  
>Pointing his hand at each detective and flicking his index finger upward, a different colored cloud enveloped over each detective's head as he announced each word deliberately.<p>

"Cuz. I. Can."

"Oh NOW you've done it...'

Shinichi coughed haphazardly, waving away the last of the smoke through his annoyance. "What did you do this time?" He only got a cheeky grin in response.

"WHAT THE HELL KUDO?" Heiji hollered, staring at the azure eyed boy with a mix of dumbfoundedness, confusion, and was that laughter?

"What do you mean?" Shinichi turned towards the dark-skinned detective, and his eyes nearly fell out of his head. "I-That is not natural..."

"I should have stayed in bloody England," Saguru pinched the bridge of his nose. He started at Shinichi intensely for a moment before passing judgement. "I'd say it's maybe a timberwolf, manatee, platinum, or dust bunny. Kuroba would know."

"You sound like my Crayola box." Kaito noted approvingly.

Saguru looked too tired to even glare. "Maybe because they're inspired by them. I should know..." he trailed off ominously.

Feeling a pit in his stomach, Shinichi grasped a lock of his hair. It was just long enough for him to see the formerly near black coloration to nearly be on the other side of the color spectrum. In his biased and someone narcissistic opinion, he would have called it moonlight gray. Like that made it any better. "Why?" Was the only thing he could think to ask.

"With all the frowning you do, you're BOUND to get wrinkles prematurely...so I thought thought you may as well have the hair to match, Shinichi-ojii-chan!"

Combined with his deadpanned expression, silver locks hanging in his eyes, Shinichi did look a lot older. Maybe all those gory crime scenes had finally caught up to him.

Kaito waved a hand towards Heiji. "You hair color is now...I'm between Cinnamon Satin, Burgundy and Crimson. Don't quite remember which Crayola pack I melted down last week, so it could be a mix of any of them."

"WHAT?"

"Red, smart one. I was trying to decide what specific shade though. I was nice enough not to make it too bright like scarlet or cherry." Kaito laughed, realizing something. "You look like one of those little troll people now with your fiery hair! Well didn't this work out beautifully?"

If it was even possible for it to show through his dark skin, Heiji's face probably would have been a dark Mulberry color. He screamed a rather impolite string of words directed at the magician, and his own damned luck. "- $%&!"

It was Saguru's turn to nod approvingly. "Matches his temper." Heiji turned on him, ready turn his fire breathing on the Brit, but Saguru merely raised an eyebrow "Prove me right, why don't you?"

The natural blonde left Heiji to his violent intelligible soliloquy and turned to the prankster. "What color is it this time? Asparagus? Cerise? Eggplant? Tumbleweed? Shampoo?"

"You're getting better at this! At least I didn't do Silly Scents this time, huh Hakuba? You would have smelled like licorice for a week. But it's Charcoal."

Saguru was silent for a moment, and then moaned despairingly. "So now I look like my punk goth cousin. Bloody wonderful."

"I improved my chromabombs just for this. Thought I'd make it special for us all. If we went with my movie suggestion, then this all could have been avoided." He sing-songed merrily, digging through the Shinichi's fridge.

The irony of Saguru's next words were not lost on him. "Revenge is best eaten cold."

"Yes, but I hate leftovers. Wait...if revenge is cold, and if revenge is also sweet...Holy crap, revenge is ice cream!"

"Piss off."

"Love you too."

"All this from...Poker. HOW?" Heiji smacked his head on the tile, making a thump that sounded like it would hurt, but the dark-skinned boy made no sign of recognition of pain. "This is never going to come out..."

"Give it 48-72 hours. Let it air-dry though, or it will stain your towel. " The British detective said knowingly. With his Ribena stretched out in his grasped in his hand, blacktop head on the tile, Saguru looked three sheets to the wind. "I give up...!"

"Damn! The power is still out," Kaito sighed, setting aside his mint condition Arsene Lupin DVD. He pulled a trio of balls from a secret pocket, their vivid color coincidentally matching his untamed hairdo. He began juggling them absentmindedly. "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers..."

Shinichi just stared at the rather disturbing picture laid out before him. It was a graveyard of all of his childhood board games, all scattered in the different nooks they'd found when the table was overloaded. Candy and scrabble tiles in particular were everywhere, along with monopoly money, and of course poker chips. It was like a sick rendition of what a young Kudo Shinichi would have done with friends a decade ago. Either he never grew up, or his friends were plain childish.

The answer he came up with scared him even more than the other two options.

The experiment was to see if they could have fun without all hell breaking loose. Well the first objective was long dead, but the night was still young...he'd have some fun with his cousin yet.

The game was far from being lost.

Sitting between the two boys, once depressed the other in state of shock, Shinichi proposed, "You guys up for one more game?"

~Go Fish~

Heiji in pure honestly had no idea who had what, so he chose a random. " Hakuba. You have any**jellyfish**?"

"No, I do not have any _Jellyfish._ Go _fish_." Saguru said smugly, though the superior tone wasn't directed at the Osakan for once.

Heiji did so merrily, hitting double digits in his card count. "Your turn then Hakuba."

"Right." Saguru had 3 clownfish and lionfish, two cod and one salmon. It was obvious the card he should ask for.

"_Salmon_ Kudo?"

"Gofish!"

Shinichi looked over his hand very carefully. He had accumulated 12 so far. He remembered a play or two back when Saguru claimed two of Heiji's salmon, which meant that the blonde held the rest of the set of anchovies just waiting for him to claim. Heiji, he also knew, had stolen 2 rest of his Kingfish last round, and in his fishing, Shinichi found the final Kingfish. Either way, he would win in the standings. Everything else he only had one for. It was an easy decision.

"Got any TUNA?" He was grinning ear to ear like a madman.

"**_GO FISH!_**" The three Meitantei chimed in unison, arm in arm, spirits high and laughing. Revenge wasn't ice cream. It was fish.

Magician Friend, paralyzed in fear, only quivered under the table as he had been for the past hour, trying to not scream like a little girl.

* * *

><p>Because who DOESN'T love money-fights, inter-lingual conversations, crayons, man-hugs, sugar hangovers and Kid cross-dressing? I sure do! \^o^

And since I'm a nice Inu, Neko get's the first word.

_Well Inu you've done it again! And this time I helped! YAY! so this has to be one of your best yet. And I did the UNO scene! (but you can probably tell how amateur it was...) But never the less, I had fun!_

_However you did a SaguruXAkoko scene... HIISSSSSS! HOW DARE YOU!? They would NEVER work... But that is the only thing that really gets me... *eye-twitch* we're friends right...?_

o_O I suppose so...Kill me and you get no more FF! Chill out dude!

_Well thanks you guys for RR'ing!_

Who says they're R&Ring? We have to work for those!

_And if you have any drawing requests please tell me! Love y'all! :3_

_-FluffyNeko-chan_

...Because things get INTENSE in my family with games... Heck one innocent game of Munchkins went horribly horribly wrong when my sister's boyfriend, expert of the game, had to be called..And he ended up going on my side!

So we had a bit of bromance up in there! Monopoly brings out the worst and best out of people...but mostly the worst _. what can i say i love make-up hugs! Kay so MAAAAYBE I had a little to much fun with Saguru's head lock...but I find the idea so cute! And after seeing the new Magic Kaito ep...well it was inevitable, I'm a gooey "let's all be best buddies forever!" chick deep down. And yes, i also wanted to knock them out, because boys are just adorable when they're sleeping! You can argue that after all they've been through with Pandora and such, it's not so much of a snowflake's chance in hell, but I understand where you all may come from thinking it's a bit OOC...but come on you can't say the picture isn't awesome in your head. Yeah...

Quite a bit of pop culture references in there, especially in Candyland-hope you all don't mind. Candy for anyone who can them them all in Candyland! There were sooo many more games I had in mind, but I figured I'd spoil you all...and school is starting up in less than a week, so I had to downsize. Neko handled Uno for me though.

Now let's see... I'm approaching number 10! I need some input people! I hope that I can make this one special for you all for sticking with me through all this, so I was hoping you guys would give me some ideas... or I was thinking may be it could be a ''revisit' chappie. Election Day? Gig Night? What Would You Do, part two? Turkey Day? A Day in the Life Of? Super Spazzing? Yeah, I think I will revisit one of them-won't tell which though! But still, I love to hear opinions! ^_^b

Speaking of which, I've gotten quite a few questions about our favorite Brit! Dear Saguru's love life is forever strange. Anyway, questions of if I believe SaguruXAkako were an 'official couple" were raised, also some about SaguruXAi, and if I'd ever right more on either. Don't let's Neko scare you, I'm much scarier. So I'll set you all straight now- I SUCK at Ai. Can't handle her.

Akako's characterization I think I do well! But it's about how they work as a COUPLE is the key. Either because I'm a decent author, or cos they're a crack couple, but I can make them work. But there's always the paradox in my mind of 'would it every really happen?'.? Which I must confess, I don't think will. Demonic witch from a netherworld and a logic based British prick detective. Ehhhh U_Up. I've been getting requests from people to pair him up with their OC, or to make an OC of my own. I hesitate here, for the first cos I don't know the OC well enough, and because I don't feel confident in pulling off and OC without going Mary Sue. Maybe just have them flat, and off screen? Eh I dunno. So what i may just end up doing is just keeping him on the market. It be fun to have at least ONE Gosho Boy not infatuated with someone...and I'd have freedom to mess with him even more! And the picture of Saguru given the three suckers love advice without even being IN a relationship is PRICELESS. Whatcha guys think?

I must say I think my Kodiak Moments (Yes, beacause when I was eight I added an extra syllable and haven't learned since.) Centers a LOT around Clandyland...particularly when the all fall asleep. Kaito being cute, Heiji being a peacemaker, Saguru being referee, Shinichi just being...Shinichi.

So it comes down to this...how was it? This was by far my edgiest...and I haven't posted in a while. Too much? Genius? $#!+? Hell we all know it was crack...

Now of all times I need feedback, because I am at my wits end trying to figure out you people. Please help me out! You guys are the light of my FF career, and going back to school I'll need that. =_=.

Lol (Lots of Love!)

~Daydreamer1412


	9. Of Monsters, Magic, and Mayhem

...sooo... how's life, everyone? :D?

Yes, I'M still alive...and it's been almost a YEAR since I updated this fic. You don't EVEN know how guilty I felt all these past few months. I wish I could have updated through the year,.but I needed to get my footing in school. Top priority.

So, to make up...Happy/Merry/Hope You had a nice: Labor Day, Yom Kippur, Columbus Day, Halloween Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah/Chanukah, 15th birthday to me, Christmas, Kwanzaa, My one year anniversary on , New Years, Chinese New Years, Mardi Gras, Valentine's, Purim, St. Patrick's, Passover, Good Friday, Easter, Cinco de Mayo, 17th birthday (again) to Shinichi, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Father's Day, 17th birthday (again) to Kaito, Fourth of July!

To all the readers and friends who don't live in the US, I tried to hit religious Holidays as well, so Independence Day for your country, Any extra Saints you observe, and your own birthdays!

GEEZE THAT WAS A LOT...

I would have updated earlier this summer, but sadly a close family member of mine was dealing with an illness, and passed away recently. So thank you all for your support :)

As a "I'm sorry I went MIA for a years" present, this went WAAAAAY over my initial kinda close if I can 12k goal...try 14.6k Xp. Have fun with that. You all know I take time into explaining things, so this is the chap that you REALLY want read it through, or you'll be confused. Otherwise...don't blame m It's AU time!

(Also helps if you have played an RPG, or better yet MMORPG. [Or even know what that acronym means] If so, this will be AWESOME for you.)

So, without further ado...

* * *

><p>Drabblet # 7-Of Monsters, Magic, and Mayhem<p>

Kaito really, really should have just stayed a Bard. But no, he had to just multi class into being a Rouge, a more fanciful way of thieving, granted. It would be all too difficult to recount just when his simple peasant life in a medieval world of monsters, magic, and of course mayhem. Regardless, one must begin somewhere.

He blamed the juggling balls.

For the majority of his life he fended for himself. His father was a high level Bard in his day, best in all of the realms, until a certain incantation went horribly wrong and took his life during one of his greatest concertos. His mother was of fairly high nobility, enough to travel the realms as she pleased, and for Kaito to tag along as well. But each time Kaito declined her offer.

He wanted to stay in the areas he'd known all his life and make a name for himself. Even when he was nine, around his father's passing, Kaito had obviously possessed the mark of a Bard. He had had a knack for swaying people's opinions and thoughts with a few well said words, and enchant them with his tricks of all sorts. He'd been accused of being a Wizard or Sorcerer on more than one occasion for all his fantastic acts. They were quickly disproven with a sweet little ditty he strummed on his lyre, and people seemed to have a "change of heart". They would shut up, enjoy the show, and maybe put an extra tip in his hat for good measure.

You had to love the confusion and fascination properties that came with being a Bard. It was hard, not abusing it. Then again cnsidering there were others of the same class-even legitimate magic users and conjurors where such mind manipulation was a common practice-he figured the Karmic spirits would out him in his place.

He made enough money on the streets to make a nice home for himself-one could only imagine the salary he'd acquire for jestering for a noble, or maybe Eight Kingdom royalty-but he preferred to just live from tip to tip. For one, he believed Bardship shouldn't be confided to the amusement in a courtroom. It discredited it, in a sense. Being a silly jester felt foolish. Second, he had a terrible case of wanderlust, and could never seem to stay in one village, town, or city for too long.

Though he had to admit, the new steam inventions of the larger cities absolutely fascinated him. He visited an old clock tower that had been recently renovated in the new technology and was very impressed. Had he not been a Bard, or Rouge, later in his years, he may have worked as an engineer or Alchemist. The goggles were stylish enough.

Anyway, he always kept moving, entertaining the young and old alike in his merrymaking, and was happy enough in being a bachelor, and a well fancied suitor among females.

Kaito was not one for a low self-esteem. He couldn't exactly blame them. His deep, sparkling indigo colored eyes were rare among muggle humans, and his hair was a thick, luxurious inky brown, so dark it looked black. He was of fair height, somewhere on the taller end of the average.

One day, a flyer caught Kaito's eye. Evidently, Legendary Kaitou Kid Rouge was up and causing mischief yet again, shrouded in mystery as always. He had been out and about since before Kaito's birth; yet eight years ago, he disappeared, and was believed dead. Known for stealing only the most precious of gems, stones, and jewels, he gave the victim fair notice of his appearance in the form of a riddle. And each and every time, he'd gotten away cleanly; odder yet, within a month of the theft, the Rogue would always return the stolen object exactly as it was when stolen. Most mind boggling of all, he wore pristine white garb, rumored to be knit from the moonlight itself, complete with a top hat and a new "monocle" as steam engineers called it, clothing reserved for the only most prestige nobility.

"Kid", as the named was shorted, was back. Royalty from all eight realms had a high bounty on his head. He could be brought in dead, alive, or enchanted, that latter most unlikely as he's shown great resistance to the most powerful of charms. He had been branded an outlaw by all the Kings and Queens, the mundane peasants rather looked to him as more an uncanny spirit-some claimed a chaotic good deity, since he never harmed anyone. Public gatherings for his thefts were common. He was a demon to some, a saint to others, a mischievous phantom to other more, or just a Rouge. But to Kaito, he was a Bard idol. Even though he was more recognized as a thief, any self-respecting Bard would be able to recognize Bardic charms and spells at work when one looked in the swirling waters of the morning News Pond. 'Almost as good as Father,' the up and coming Bard would think on more than one occasion.

During his travels and merrymaking, there was a rough patch income wise, and he always wanted to meet the Legend, even if it meant no dinner that day. So one night, he did just that; and would later regret it for the rest of his life. The revived Kid was his father's old manservant Jii, and revealed that he was acting in his Father's absence of death. In actuality, he had been murdered by a far more notorious outlaw than Kid. The murderers were an expansive Syndicate that had been active for decades.

They were looking for the long forgotten Philosopher's Stone, the prized gem of immortality. It had gone by many other names as the eons passes: Pandora, Phoenix, Arcanium, Sorcerer's Stone. However, the Philosopher's Stone always stuck. Men and women from all walks of life had once fought over it: human, elf, orc, druid, dwarf, halfling, half-breed. The entire universe was almost thrown into a state of near absolute oblivion. Kaito had learned that long ago, the eight predecessors of each realm had hidden it away with Ancient Words, never to be uncovered again. The Syndicate wanted it, and Toichi had fought to keep away from them. He had been killed for getting in their way, and staged it as a charm mistake on his part.

So it was no wonder why Kaito initially multi-classed into being a Rouge shortly after this new informational development. It wasn't so much as multi -classing either. It came naturally, seemed to go hand in hand. Donning the robes of the infamous phantom thief, he completed the heist in Jii's stead. After that, he officially took on the role, and soom found he was damn good at it too. And for a while, Kaito gallivanted along intent of seeking revenge for his Father still top priority in his mind , leading the poor Justice Bringers on ridiculous castle top moonlit chases.

He thought the old Favored Soul Nakamori (though his mouth had certainly not been deity blessed) would go absolutely insane. Though he had the most respect for the Commanding Kid Force of most the Realms, Kaito didn't find it too challenging...

…Until he met yet another Justice Bringer; Hakuba Saguru, Wizard from the Fifth Realm. Testy bookworm prat, Kaito had felt would be a more appropriate name for him, but titles were important.

* * *

><p>Saguru was of a new order of type of Justice Bringer-a detective. As opposed to the backwards thinking "Kill them all." mentality, he was a supporter of a new idea of "court" in the case of humanoids. Granted, they would have to fall into the more lawful of the nine moral alignments: Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral or Neutral. The other four alignments, Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil and the demonic Chaotic Evil would most likely be condemned without trial, if not killed on the spot. Before he became Kid, Kaito supposed he fell in the Neutral Good scene. Nowadays he was more Chaotic Good speed-feeding off spontaneous energy, freedom and unplanned possible good doing that got derailed time to time. He tried not to think of slipping of anything worse than Chaotic Neutral, at worse.<p>

Though he initially thought he was just another prick detective, as several had been popping up for him, Kaito did have a lot of respect for the young detective. His "court and trial" ideas were rather fair to Kaito. He was one of the few Justice Bringers who actually got within a harpy's feather of catching him, and one who actually wanted to know why he was doing such fallacy. Of course, Kaito would never tell him. But those few uttered words "Why would you do that?" meant a lot. He treated him like the basic morale humanoid he was. And he was insightful enough to question if what Kaito was doing was as sinister as so many people made him out to be-even front he standpoint of a Lawful Good, crime-fighting Wizard. Sure, he was still a prick, but certainly one of his favorites.

_The night air was cold as it whipped Saguru's charm enlaced robes, made of a flexible gold color, but it looked dull in comparison to his straw colored hair. Kaito wondered if he used magic to keep it from graying. "Kid! Get over here!" The young man yelled over the wind. Perhaps Kaito hadn't scheduled a heist as the first of the weeklong Enorbian Monsoons in the Third Realm...bad planning on his part, but when did he ever plan anything?_

_"Oh but why, Wizard-san?" A grin. "If you really are a Wizard...where is your long all-knowing beard? Oh, I know...!" Before Saguru could blink, a poof engulfed his face. "Perfect!"_

_Kid had to duck when the mask fashioned of goat hair was sent flying back at him, now a block of ice. "Dammit-achoo!" The blonde sneezed. "You prat, I'm allergic to goat-achoo!"_

_"Shall I call a Cleric? Hate for you to catch a cold!"_

_"Neither I you, so warm up." He raised his staff; just enough time for Kaito to note its beauty. It was made of the holy twisted bark of the Yggdrasil tree. Perched atop the shaft was a hawk-like Simurgh bird, a divine bird of legend. Curving inwards under its breast-feathers it held an intricate hourglass filled with glittering sand. Kaito only had time to wonder why the hourglass was rotated rapidly before it released a huge fireball and hurtling at him. "Incendia!" After pulling off some Olympic level acrobatics, Kaito perched atop one of the cable spires and glared down at the detective, who was smirking up at him. "Not so hot now, are we?"_

_"Maaa Hakuba, I thought you weren't allowed to kill!" Kaito whined, batting some straw flames from his precious hat. Good thing he'd put some fire resistance on it._

_"I'm not, at least in the case of any sane humanoid. But you and I both know you have the reflexes of a damn cat, so I wasn't worried." He huffed, obviously still smarting front he elderly remark. "I'm far from old. Besides, look were you've backflipped yourself." Saguru made a valid point. That night's chase had led them to the highest balcony of the tallest tower, and Kaito had just trapped himself of on the roof of the said tall tower. "You've left yourself nowhere to run, unless you suddenly have magic to fly. Or resist gravity."_

_"...Gravity?"_

_Saguru shook his head. "Never mind, I learned of it back in my studies."_

_"No wonder you're so boring." The Rouge had made himself comfortable on the roof, laying on his tummy, frowning down at the boy. "Spending countless years reading musty old and grimoires and scrolls, just to do some magic!" he blew a raspberry. "I doubt it's worth it. Except maybe for the fancy hat-mine is way cooler though."_

_Ignoring the jobs at his precious hat, the wizard asked drily, "Oh, and being a stealing cad with a nice hat is?"_

_"Have you SEEN my hat?" Kid straightened said hat to show his discontent to the impertinent comment. "Hey, it's not stealing! I just borrow things without asking and have questionable intent on returning them."_

_This earned an eye roll, and the conjuring of handcuffs. The copper was outlined in a hazy white to show that, along with the latest technology, the restraints were magic bound as well. "Well then, allow me to return you to the Justice, with questionable intent on letting you go free again."_

_"Your offer is rather tempting, I will admit, Wizard-san," Kid mused. "But I have a better idea." He stood up, back to the expanse of dulling darkness. "I think I'll try defying 'gravity'." With that ambiguous note, Kid simply took a step backwards. His hat didn't even fall off._

_Saguru raced to the edge of the castle top, swearing at the lack of mana to pull off a spell to save the lunatic. He looked over the edge, darkness now a dull gray with dawn approaching. And in the dull colors of the rising sun, she could see a white triangle soaring on the skies, free as any bird._

_"He did it again," Saguru shook his head, knowing that even the airborne Justice Bringers could catch him or his flying machine. "Until our next battle, Rouge." Instead he took a seat on the gable, pulled out an old scroll, and began his daily writings in it. The guards found him there, enjoys his morning mixture of hot herb potion, the encounter recorded and with a plan for the next heist._

Their next encounter was not nearly as pleasant. Upon their next meeting, Saguru's main focus of foiling, the Wizard-Rouge Spider, was closely related in a heist. A number of things happened, including the sharing of Kid's actual reason behind his thievery to a certain Wizard. The end result was Saguru's resignation from the Justice Bringers. In his lengthy resignation, he reasoned that he was he was young to be confined to such rigid commitment. He had a lot of the world to still see.

What he didn't mention was that he created a small guild with the likes of the very Rouge he'd sworn to catch. It had long been decided that the two were experts in their areas, and their efforts would be lost wasting their energies chasing or evading the other. Saguru wouldn't be involved in the showy heists that Kid took part in. Rather, he acted as the travel companion of the surprisingly morale thief. Rouges swung either way on the alignment scale—their services could be used to deactivate traps and serve as the eyes of any traveling party. Thieves, however, always had a negative connotation. They stopped at nothing for whatever they wanted, serving only themselves, and usually with less than savory moral alignment. However, some had actually been a part of the special Kid Justice Bringers. That was enough for the Wizard to forgive the discretion, and thus get over the undeniable fact that he was in league with a less than morally concerned Rouge.

Road trips were an entirely different battlefield Saguru hadn't anticipated. But we digress.

They toured most of the Realms, doing smaller jobs around the county side if only to get their name out. They knew they weren't nearly experienced enough to take on any high end jobs within the Realm barriers: Commander's Circle, Noble's Court, or Regal. It would be suicide. Some simple city mischief was fair game, however.

The plan was to get particularly well known, in hopes of a good quest being bestowed on them, one that led them to Pandora, Spider, or even the Syndicate. They had to start small. Protecting a cavern train from some mundane rabid dogs, for instance. Or collecting Uliep sap from a tree inhabited by Relock wasps. Even finding a stupid doll for the little brat shouldn't have been in the goddamn monster infested cave in the first place, and such odd jobs. Regardless, slowly, but surely, they inched their way up the food chain.

The system was working well enough, but even with the extra help, Kaito was still thirsting for even more adrenaline rush. His heists came after every blue moon or so—which is to say, every month or two, if he was lucky. It took a longtime to do the research on a gem in question even with a Wizard handy. Also, there was the issue of getting to the site. Foot travel was slow: Nice for seeing the scenery, but slow. Had Saguru not been there to magically constrict him, Kaito probably would have done something drastic. They needed to get extremely lucky or raise enough platinum and gold to buy the chance of a quest from a bigwig. Otherwise, they'd be condemned to a simple life of the village fix-it men in the boondocks of the Realms.

They should have run as soon as they met the dark guy and his little friend.

* * *

><p>There was always competition in the quest industry—so many jobs needed to be done, and several desperate urchins willing to pull off anything for any amount of money. Kaito never really bothered to research their competition. Saguru, on the other hand, liked to inform himself. The greatest adversaries for the greater good were some pair of Justice Bringers: Hattori of the West, and Kudo of the North (for Saguru would not condone anyone taking his Eastern reputation). The two were each solo questers, and were often compared to the other.<p>

The one from the Third Realm apparently was skilled in the ways of the sword, back to the days of samurai and daimyo. This isn't to say their current society was much better, if not worse. Very few people ere as skilled as him for his age in fighting. Soon enough he conformed to the likes of Paladinship; not as easily bought as a Fighter, and far more tact than Barbarians.

Dedicated, and a master at defending as well as dealing damage, the Paladin was well received in his own territory and the surrounding, even though he was more melee oriented than the usual balanced mix of magic and melee. He was a bit loose as far as alignment. Though he was traditionally a Lawful or Neutral Good Paladin, he'd been called a Paladin of Freedom, after the legendary Chaotic Good Paladin, due to his less than savory temper at times. He made a good detective—so long as he had his enchanted helmet on during the 'deductions'.

The bigshot from the First Realm had to be the opposite. He was a Favored Soul, blessed by one of the ancient deities or a spirit that served as his patron…Though some skeptics believed he was actually touched by an evil spirit of death, as much as people were murdered by other people around him. Ironically enough, Kudo himself didn't even know who his patron spirit was, and didn't care to find out. He had the healing touch, and wasn't a half bad fighter.

Though he had been mistaken as a Cleric before for his never failing Lawfulness, he wasn't even close. He was just a bit to immodest to be considered a good Cleric. His breeding was of the highest standards, his mother well into the acting business, father a famous archivist. The young man could do most everything without much use of his spell casting. He was like Saguru and the Paladin—one of the leaders in the coming era of deduction. This meant, instead of relying so heavily on magic, he used a spelling technique of "deduction and inference" to uncover truths.

"In a way, they are much like you and me, Kuroba. They rely on their own wits to decipher things. Very interesting…I'd like to challenge them to a skirmish one day." Saguru had said once relaying this information to Kaito. "Thoughts?"

Kaito replied to Saguru's reading of this information with a belch and request for his slab of meat. Saguru didn't waste his breath bringing it up again.

That information came in handy when they were forced to duke it out on the single quest.

"So, let me get this straight," Heiji said slowly across the tree stump. His partner, Shinichi was seated beside him, and the Wizard and Bard were seated across their make shift table."We," He gestured to himself and Shinichi, "Were bestowed a quest to enter a monster infested cave and reclaim some old artifact our questee dropped there. And...you guys got the same quest at the same time, for an old artifact as well?"

"Yup, that pretty much sums it up." Kaito nodded, more concentrated on his four juggling balls.

"Did you ever meet your quest-giver, or at least know who it is?" Saguru was in a pensive thinking position.

Shinichi matched the thoughtfulness in his own way, eyes closed. "No, I actually found that very suspicious myself...He just left us a parchment at our meeting place of the Drowned Sorrows Tavern..." Fishing the scroll out from his robes, Shinichi presented the said parchment. "It's charmed that only someone with an active mana output can open," he said, concentrating said magical energy in his fingertip that a warm red hue, and holding it close to the seal; it bloomed in a fashion something reminiscent to a flower.

"The same with us," Saguru agreed, revealing his identical scroll, and bent over with the fellow justice bringer to collaborate on the oddity.

" Probably another senile old coot," Heiji dismissed the oddness. Quest givers often screwed up in their job, be it assigning the incorrect place or time, forgetting to give an important item such as a key to enter the site, or, what it appeared to be the current case, assigned the same quest to the same people. "A common annoyance. Regardless, we ought to figure out what to do about it. neither of our parties can carry on with the quest, since it's unfair." Heiji was very sensitive to the topic of fairness, even more so than his fellow justice bringers.

"Suppose we all just make a joint camp until, then go see about this in the morning?"

"That sounds good-OI! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" The Paladin roared, standing up brashly, all traces of an easy going mannerisms gone.

"What are you yelling about-hey, Kuroba!" Shinichi joined his partner in surprise.

Saguru almost didn't even want to know what his accomplice was up to, but better judgment told him he had to investigate. When he took the plunge, Saguru had to remind himself that he was just observing, not judging. But goddamn did the Rogue look bad at that moment, sprinting full speed into the cave, bag of tricks slung over his shoulder. Like he was going in all by himself, and intended to take the treasure in said bag.

Observing, observing…

Okay, so it looked pretty bad. It would take a LOT of dragoncrap to convince Saguru otherwise if he were in the other quester's armor, but he still had to try. "I'm sure Kuroba has a perfectly logical reason for this." That was a lie to his own ears; "Kuroba" and "logical" did not belong in the same sentence.

It didn't work. "Well, I wanna know that reason, but AFTER I kick his sorry ass!" Growled Heiji, who then stormed after him not brandishing his sword, but hand gripping the hilt tightly. "Goddamn son of a bitch..."

"Paladins aren't supposed to swear," Saguru said.

Heiji amended this with a particularly rude gesture over his shoulder before donning his greenmetal helmet and being devoured by the tar black mouth of the cave.

His abandoned partner sighed. "Sorry about that," Shinichi turned to the Wizard. "...But it really isn't honorable, getting on ahead of us-"

"You say that like I have any idea what he's doing," Saguru pointed out drily, gathering his and Kaito's supplies in some foliage. "I'm in much of the dark as you are, literally." The last rays of the sun had finally disappeared behind the Solumn mountains, at the first of the twin moons were peaking out in its stead.

"Well, you're welcome to come with me to retrieve them, and I suppose start the quest, or hold down things here." The Favored Soul Called over his shoulder. He was browsing through his weaponry, a bit annoyed that it was really one of two options: ranged or melee. Everyone had to start somewhere, right? "I don't suggest it though. Not familiar with this countryside, but I hear it has some real nasties come nightfall." Slinging his quiver of bolts-normal steel, sleep inducing, and poison dipped-he hefted his dark wood crossbow on his arm. Heiji ought to do just fine on the melee, mad as he was, so he'd take the ranged method.

"And let you three hoard all the treasure? I may be from the far east, but I'm not that foreign to fall for such a ploy." The Wizard grasped his staff and rose to his full height. The staff had to be about 6 feet, and he could look one fit some.

Shinichi appraised this with some interest, and finally, after rubbing his chin, "...I feel like you need a long flowing beard or something..."

After a moment of debating mimicking the hotheaded Paladin's wordless reply, Saguru just sighed and headed, going along with whatever convoluted mess his Bard-Rogue friend was bound to get him into.

* * *

><p>Kaito had a dangerously short attention span. One moment he was trying to regain his juggling balls that seemingly leaped from his hands, the next he saw an interesting light further in the cave, and one thing led to another. By the time he realized he'd strayed far from the mouth, and probably pissed off the other adventurers in the process. Oh well, he was already far in, may as well look into things. Saguru would be able to hold off his slight social schizoid mannerisms enough to appease them. He needed to grow. Or not, most likely.<p>

The mix up in in itself was a mystery, however. Maybe their employer was playing a clever prank. If Kaito had the money, he'd probably do something along the lines. Not as creepily of course, and he'd be sure to pay them for unknowingly playing along. But such thoughts were for a later time, he needed to navigate the cavern first.

It was lucky the Rogue was light of foot, or he'd stalagmite with his knee long ago. He was careful not to touch, or crumble any of the formations, less the vibrations disturb the stalactites hanging above. He also could appreciate the little things, and he could notice that each of the land formations seemed to contain small evanescent, multi-colored sheen of glimmer on them. He didn't know if anything lived in this cave, but if it did, he figured he wouldn't hurt his case by destroying its home. Diplomacy was best friend.

He could feel the last bit of a backup diplomatic approach when he heard the first stalagmite explode. Kaito dodge rolled to avoid the wickedly sharp shards that were bombarded at him. He ended up sprawled on his back, only a foot away from another stalagmite. He was in perfect view to see the glint of the bastard sword a very, very pissed off Paladin was swinging around haphazardly. "

The deathly calm reply echoed in the shuddering cave. Give me one good reason not to miss next time."

"Here's one: how about you'll kill us BOTH!" Kaito whisper-screamed, afraid to raise his voice any higher. "Put that thing away!"

"The lot of us were trying to figure out what happened with our quests, and we wanted to make sure it was fair to everyone that they got their reward and treasure. Kudo and I were fine with waiting till morning to chat with the quest giver; and unless the Wizard was meant to distract us, he seemed on board too. So, WHAT is your problem?!" Heiji growled down at the paler boy, emerald eyes smoldering. "

"You're insane!"

The warrior hefted his sizable shield to display, obviously not very worried for his own being. He drove it into the hard packed, stone-like dirt , and leaned on it, grinning..well, pretty evilly for a good-doer. "No, I've been swindled. And I don't take kindly to being fooled, Bard."

"Ohh…" Indigo eyes driften into the realm of violent, a dull glow evident in them. "I'm afraid you are terribly mistaken, noble Paladin." He drawled congenially

"Am I now? How to you propose?" Heiji meant to deliver the query with a bit more mocking in his voice. But for some reason, he found himself forgetting why he was planning on being condescending in the first place.

"You see, I was merely trying to help both our efforts in venturing in alone. Many people don't know this about me, but I, ah, dabble in the Rogue's abilities in addition to b…But you, being the acclaimed, fortitudinous Justice Bringer like yourself probably already knew that."

"Obviously. But thanks," Heiji replied. He was a pretty awesome paladin. Good thing Kuroba knew it, too. Why was he on the floor anyway? "So tell me, what have you discovered, Roguish Bard?" He quarried, then took hold of his arm firmly.

Kaito winced at the quick movement, certain he was in for a very painful dislocated body part at best. But instead, he found himself lifted clean off the floor with only a neutral pressure applied on his limb. He was back on his feet, and even got a pat on the back to get some dirt off. Hattori had helped him up seconds after he was hellbent on causing him bodily harm. And now, "suddenly" Hattori was being rather helpful…Much like anyone else was when Kaito had the chance to "explain" things. Charisma was Kaito's second best friend.

"Well, do you feel that draft? It seems to be moving upward and into my nose. The smell is something old, I can tell. And if a draft is going upwards, then it must be from somewhere below us. I reckon maybe only a few more stone throws away before we reach a depression. The issue is that I've detected several potholes-only as wide around as me, but deeper than both of us standing on top of one another. As I've gone on, I've water my step and blocked them off with big rocks." He gestured to the large rocks that were sprinkled along the recently made foot trail. This cave is a lot bigger than it looks."

"Oh, well good to know!" Heiji said amiably. "You're a good fellow, know that Kuroba?"

"Stop charming him, you idiot."  
>How many times had Kaito heard that phrase? "Hakuba!" He greeted without even turning around. "Glad you and Kudo decided to join us,"<br>"Join you? More like stop you! What were you thinking Kuroba, stealing all the treasure for yourself?" Shinichi growled, no nonsense. " Have you any honor, Bard?"  
>"Oh calm down you stick in the mud," Heiji said, now assuredly of his own clear mind. "Kuroba was just scouting ahead for us and covered up some pitfalls."<br>Saguru exhaled through his noise, ambiguous as to whether it was of relief or exasperation."Did he now?"

"Yep! And I found my juggling balls here too! " Kaito said happily. He decided he wouldn't give up his true motives for venturing in alone. It was strange though, how he found them. They had a bit of an evanescent glow to it; when looked straight on they were the same, but just out of the corner of his eye, they had a glimmer. They really shouldn't have rolled so far anyway, this was pretty deep in, and when he dropped them, they were some good yard away from the mouth to begin with. Strange…

Though he appreciated the Bard's scoutwork, Heiji decided he was going to keep a closer eye on Kaito. "I guess waiting until morning isn't an option now, so we may as well crusade this through together. We can split the treasure, I'm sure." For his short temper, he made up for it in his generosity. The rest of his company agreed.

The warrior assumed his position in the front of their group, bastard sword brandished. His shield was high and ready to deflect any slide attacks, almost as big as his torso. The shield, just as his helmet identified him as a Hattori, was a token of his Paladinship. They were the great protectors, after all, of nobles and royalty. As such, he had some protective blessings at his disposal he could balance the fighting out with, but that wasn't as fun. Hitting things, now that was fun. Really, his personal job was to beat the crap out of whatever came their way. Just how he liked it.

Taking his cue, Shinichi fell to the back of the party, crossbow ready. Shinichi, being the only person capable of healing, chose to play on the safer side. He predicted his healing would be more in demand, so he wouldn't partake in so much hand to hand. A Favored Soul's work was never done. In at any given time, he was expected to defend like a Paladin, heal like a Cleric, spellcast like a Wizard or Sorcerer, and give deal out damage like a Barbarian. No one really cared about anything else about his healing though. Regardless, he had to know how to do several things at the drop of a hat, and thankfully, Shinichi was quiet apt at this. His time studying on that tiny off coast on a tiny island did him good.

Saguru was in the dead back, but no one stood directly in front of him; no one wanted to be the accidental target of his spellcasting. His long days preparing scrolls and incantations had paid off. He could now channel his magical energy though his staff instead of relying on scrolls, but it had a few seconds delay; nevertheless, it was worth it. The results were devastating to whoever was caught in his path. He was trying to learn all the possible eight elements in some form, but was still starting off. As of now, he could hurl conjured fireballs, manipulate whip-like streams of water, or summon sharp stalactites under foes. Lightning, wind, light, darkness, and his personal favorite, ice, would have to come later once he unlocked the more powerful spells concerning his three basic elements.

Kaito was a little behind Heiji, slightly to the right. As a Bard, he was a master of crowd control, confusion, and distraction, all of which he used generously when battling. It was he could fend for himself well in this way. Another post of a bard is to return to the more domesticated duties; making merry, singing, dancing, playing a lute or some such. Said action would uplift his party members and increase their statistics. In short, he could sing song to inspire people to be stronger, wiser, more charismatic, etcetera…but that wasn't much his style.

In hostile situations, he preferred to take the Rogue's approach in filling in where he was needed, offense or defense, once disorienting people with some bard tricks. He worked best by doing the ever honorable thing of stabbing from behind or side after concealing himself in the shadows. He wielded a dagger the length of his forearm, perfect for when his he got close enough to his target to apprehend, and need be, eliminate them.

The most curious thing, however, was their assembling in the first place. While the duos had long since figured out their Mos, and how the interacted with the other, their interactions would have to be different when in a quest party, small as it was. They each had some basic common sense in where their talents best lie. But to be able to know predict where their other party members' movements, positions, needs and strengths was very uncommon indeed.

"How big," Heiji paused to swat his sword on face sized ,fanged moth that had been fluttering aggressively at him. For the past hour they had been hiking he'd come across dozens of the little beasts. "Is this cave anyway? "

Instead of answering, Kaito moved in front of Heiji. "Stop. I sense something." Gracefully as the moth's normal sized, prettier cousin, he near floated over the ground a few feet. After only a few paces the boy launched into an involuntary cartwheel over yet another pitfall. "'Nother one about 20 paces forward, on the left, stick to the right." With that, he returned to his place in the middle of the pack that had shifted to the right of the tunnel.

Shinichi quickened his pace to walk beside him."How can you just "sense" something is amiss, that doesn't make very much sense. Did you hear of feel anything in particular? I'd like to know for future referenced."

"No, I just sensed it. Just like at the end of this damn mile of a tunnel, I can sense there's something…something big there."

"Something."

"Yep! Prominent, too."

"Forget I asked…"

"Don't feel bad Kudo, such vagueness is common with him. 'Something' can be a fluffy bunny-rabbit to a demon from the ninth level of hell," Saguru kept his eyes on focus on the handful of fire he'd produced, "Expect the unexpected."

Heiji seemed amused by this. "Are we adapting a Bardic saying, Wizard?"

"A saying that seems to be the truth a lot," he corrected.

"Fair enough observation. One thing I've learned on my travels is that NOTHING goes the way you want it to," He trailed off as they the ceilings that had been steadily sloping, leveled, and began inclining upwards. A few more minutes he could see something big. And prominent. Then again, any sign of humanoid dominion, never mind a 25 foot tall massive wooden door with creepers grown over in a spideweb like fashion, would be prominent after all that time facing giant creepy crawlies and cave formations. "That looks like a point of interest,"

"Ya think?" Heiji said drily, running had on the old, but strong wood. "I wouldn't want to drive my sword through this if I could, fine looking door, ancient as it is. . It's tough." He gave it a knock to prove its point, the thing was solid. "I'm willing to bet this moss stuff is the lock, or is covering a mechanism of some sort." He bent down to one of the four suspicious looking too-perfect circular patch of the said moss stuff of and unthinkingly dug his hand in.

"Yeah, there's definitely—"he cut himself off by pulling away in pain. "Okay yes, it's a lock, we don't have a key, and it's mana sealed." He reported, waving his hand about.

"Perhaps I can be of assistance, " Saguru stepped up beside Heiji, ball of flame slowly getting bigger. "Stand clear, if you would." Once the party was of reasonable difference, he lobbed the flame at the target. The creeper shuddered, moving some; however, instead of burning it all off, the fire was driven from the spot up through the web to the other four circles, who all then absorbed the flam. Meanwhile, the scorched portion rejuvenated, now thicker.

The show was off-putting but interesting to the Wizard. "Well then…."

Shinichi put into words the event they'd just witnessed. "It seems like the creeper plant distributes any damage evenly, fire being super effective. I'm willing to bet that even if we torch the thing all at once, it still will rejuvenate. But perhaps of we hit all the points at once with fire…?"

The blonde frowned."Not sure if I can allocate four fireballs for each, Kudo,"

"You don't have too, just enough for a torch or two." The party appraised the smiling Favored Soul for a moment. Saguru couldn't help but get an eerie shock of déjà vu.

It had to be moonhigh by the time they finished, but once done, the four young men had scrounged together some long sticks and substitutes for twine and tar to make for some simple torches. Shinichi handed one of each to Kaito and Heiji.

On the count of three, we all set fire to a circle," He planned simply.

"Good plan, but who will get the ones all the way up there?" Emerald eyes assessed the door.

"I'll get it," Kaito assured, grasping his torch firmly, and scaled the door high into the air using only three of his limbs, balancing comfortably on the corner edge like he could spend an afternoon literally hanging out. At the disbelieving looks he got, he shrugged nonchalantly. "Acrobatics."

Saguru and Shinichi had decided they could get the upper and lower right with fireballs and flaming crossbow bolts respectively. Heiji, once seeing a boulder was blocking the final circle, he amended it by busting it into smithereens with his spare hammer, and then proceeded to toss aside the childsized rocks like they weighed nothing, and get into position.

"Alright...One, two, three!"

At the final word, each circular target was torched. The cave began rumbling.

"I think I ought to get d-down...!" Kaito lost his grip at the shaking, but before he could hit ground, iridescent wings sprouted from his back, easing his fall to a mere foot. The wings then dissipated into the air.

Shinichi looked pleased to see this. "I knew that feather's fall protection would come in handy—" He ducked suddenly, giving Heiji the room to deliver a diverging kick to a falling rock that was headed straight for his head.

"Wherever the hell that door leads, we need to get in NOW." The dark skinned boy grunted at the effort to keep his legs beneath him. "Hakuba, is it working?"

The scholar had taken the duty to observe and never take his eyes of the door, and he seemed mystified. "Th-the lock, it has an ancient symbol from the Azarath dimension! The fact that our meager fire abilities were able to unlock it is—"

"TALK NORMAL, DAMN YOU!"

"It's opening!" Mocha eyes widened at the unnaturally smooth movement, last of the creepers burned off to reveal a magnificent and very complicated lock mechanism. He'd love to examine it for all the properties it had, magically, architecturally, historically, but the cave was coming down fast. There was nothing to be seen behind the door, but it was better than being buried alive. "Hurry, before it gets blocked off!" Not to mention the steadily falling stalagmites. The smaller ones about the size of a quill had already begun falling. If they had stung, one could only imagine the injury a carriage sized one could do.

They didn't need to be told twice. The party collectively sprinted for the door, as the paltry light the mouth of the cave provided was obstructed by the rock; the debris also tampered with the door, now closing when some bigger rocks had disturbed its unlocking. The four dove for the small crack the door was providing just as the tunnel caved completely in. The effort had taken a bit from them all, so it was the silent agreement for everyone to recompose, use a mana or health potion if needed, and assess their inventory.

Once gathering themselves, the party took a look at their surroundings: a circular room that had huge gleaming crystal formations hanging from the high ceiling. It casted off some iridescent lighting in the room and reflected off the several other crystals that edged the room. Either it was a beautiful work of nature, or it was designed in such a way for all its precision.

It was quite the sight to behold, nevertheless; certainly a welcome one after hours of walking in a dingy dark stooping tunnel. Even more of a welcome sight was the large trunk in the back of the room. It seemed pretty mundane compared to the natural chandelier, but a chest was a chest. If some old hidden relic were to be anywhere, it would be there…and of course, some extra treasures for their trouble. It seemed pretty straightforward, just trudge through the tunnel, and then walk through the clear open space to an unguarded trunk. Pretty legit.

Of course, quests were never that easy for the boys even when they were in their pairs. All four of them-or at least the three detectives all together- were just bad luck. Kaito had to be an omen though, as no one had randomly died at the entrance or something. Not after three steps toward the prize did screeching assault the boys' ears, echoing in the spacious area.

Immediately after the last screech sounded, dozens upon dozens of black creatures fly around and between the party, who could do nothing but hold their ground. They served as at herald for a massive beast, most likely the Alpha, who flew in last. Its minions were looked like it: a batlike creature, only much bigger than the average bat. Long, visible fangs that protruded from their mouths, violent red scars were on their steel cutting wings, and had murky, beady eyes to match their body. The leader had eerie yellow eyes that had a dark intelligence to them.

Naturally, once again, the four assembled into the formation they had assumed just before in the tunnels: Heiji in the very front, Kaito a little behind and to his side, Shinichi always behind Kaito, and Saguru bringing up in rear in the middle. Only this time, each person was now on the offensive, as opposed to exploratory or defensive.

""No rest for the weary, huh?" Heiji hefted his sword over his shoulder and re-equipped his helmet. "Hope you boys are ready to slice and dice! Finally, some action," He said a bit too enthusiastically.

Shinichi spared his partner a glance before refocusing on reloading. "Nearly getting crushed to death wasn't enough action for you?"

"That I couldn't fight. Had no control over it. This, this is my forte."

"I think I leave that you and Kuroba, thanks," Shinichi muttered, already trying to eye a vulnerable area to shoot.

"I suppose we'll let you handle the brunt, and I'll help you out on the sides?"

"Yup**, **sounds good."

"Hakuba, Kudo, you got the far ones?"

Both ranged attackers nodded their assent.

"So, we done talking already? Good. You all focus on the spawn, I'll get the Alpha. Let the fun begin."

* * *

><p>For all their time preparing, the bats seemed time be head at bay by their leader. Heiji took a step forward. The bats stirred even more so behind the Alpha, who undoubtedly glared at Heiji, daring him to step over an imaginary line, perhaps. He didn't have to in the end, because the exploding bolt shot in the middle of the mass made all hell break loose anyway.<p>

Bats dropped from the air like flies at the initial attack. The bolt only acted as a shock to scramble them. The bats outnumbered the humans greatly, and while defending from all sides would prove difficult, it was better than trying to put a chink in a massive army.

True to his word, Heiji went straight for the Alpha. The Alpha was ready, releasing an earth shaking shriek that nearly put Heiji to his knees. The Paladin's eyes narrowed, and he circled the beast, giving an experimental stab between duck and dodging it's giant fangs and metal cleaving wingspan. The bats seemed to be intelligent; not as much as their leader, but enough to form squadrons of sorts, and diving at their targets like kamikazes.

Meanwhile, Saguru had his hands full with the masses. Saguru kept his mostly at bay by throwing up a wall of water where he stood. The bats flew so fast for him, the water being semipermeable, that they may have run into the cave wall for all its force. He alternated between that, waterwhipping, and for some close calls, torching them for a quick and decisive end. He tried to plan out his use of magic wisely though. His mana would regenerate with some melee fighting, and he wasn't half bad with his giant staff for simply whacking at the little mongrels.

Shinichi was in danger of running out of bolts. He'd fended for himself, and kept the bats from interrupting Saguru with his spellcasting. All with a crossbow. He was very, very skilled with it, especially considering it was his secondary weapon. It only took half a glance to pin, clip, wound, or impale a beast without much effort. He needed to make his bolts last however, so he had taken to utilizing the entire shaft of the bolt to skewer through three, four, five at a time. On occasion when one got to close for comfort, he unsheathed his primary weapon, a shortsword. It had been touched by a higher power when he found it; most likely his mystery patron. He was curious as to why the bats repulsed in the gleam of the sword. He didn't warrant much thought, and deferred to simply sweeping the sword in an overhead arch-like fashion, creating a screen of protection for and himself while he shot away.

There was rhyme and reason to Kaito's extravagant acrobatics when street performing. It was how he kept in shape when not on a quest or traveling. All the jumping, tumbling, flipping, and other gymnastic moves serve a purpose aside from wow factor. They were good practice for battle. In combat, he preferred to stay as loose an agile as possible. While his daggers didn't have the force of a broadsword or the ranged of a crossbow, it was versatile. More ways to eliminate a target. It was fast, or at least fast enough to keep up with his movements. It was easy to conceal, in case diplomatic endeavors went sour. Of course, the latter was more useful when dealing with non-beastly enemies; nevertheless, Kaito was comfortable. He went along supporting Heiji with his fast work, leaping into the air to reach his targets, and more or less keeping an eye out for where he was needed.

Meanwhile, as the Rogue, Favored Soul and Wizard kept the minions busy, the Paladin was having his _mano a mano _with his new best friend, Gerald the Bat.

That's what he named him personally, anyway. When Heiji had declared this fact to Gerald, Gerald was not pleased. He seemed to be only more enraged, apparently intelligent enough to have an opinion on names. So of course, the understanding Paladin used the address exclusively.

By now, as its underlings were slowly but surely decreasing in number due to the party's group effort, the Alpha began to get more aggressive. Heiji had sustained his fair share of injury, but his policy held up: he dealt twice as much damage as he received. So the bat was on its last metaphorical legs.

"Wish I could say I'm sorry about this Gerald. But hey, I cared enough to give you a proper name!"

Gerald responded to this by lashing out without warning. His wing clipped Heiji's arm, successfully cutting through his armor and cutting the skin. The gash wasn't deep, but enough to draw some blood. Troublesome.

"Have it your way…" Heiji's grip on the hilt of his sword tightened before completely vanishing from his hands. He had thrown it high into the air so high, it was in within a foot of hitting the crystal chandelier. As his sword ascended, so did he; in one audacious move, he charged for the Gerald, climbed onto one wing. As predicted, Gerald flapped his wing violently to shake him off, which gave Heiji the extra lift to spring into the air. He reclaimed his falling sword as he rocketed, and then grasped it with both hands, accidently somersaulting once. The blade by now had a red glow to it. He regained his balance well enough to draw his sword straight down, cutting Gerald right in half, and landed on his feet. Heiji didn't look back at the shrill screech that resulted in the attack, rather just walking off and sheathing his sword. His party had exterminated the other bats, and he'd done his job.

"Good work, boys."

After the dust had cleared, sinister entrails of the demonic bats littered the floor. Gerald the bat was vanquished. The party stayed tense for a few moments after the last beast fell, in case there were any reinforcements. Nothing came.

Once he finished healing the injuries with his healing touch, Shinichi commented, "That's strange," He was looking at the remains of the bats; bodies cracked, cleaved and charred.

Somehow not prone to helmet hair, Heiji's hair slipped from the protective gear easily and placed the helm at his side. "How ya mean? Though these bats seemed a bit off...I've only shooed them off one of them before, and that's when they even woke UP. Remember that caravan quest we had Fourth Realm?"

"Yes, these were oddly aggressive..."

Saguru flipped though an old monster grimiore he kept with him. "The closest I've ever seen of those bats are the desert swiftwings, but never with that coloration or behavior. Heck, the fangs are a surprise as well."

Kaito's eyes widened. "I think you have something else to add to your book, Hakuba…" He pointed to where and all eyes followed the indicating index. The black and red bloody remains seemed to melt to a liquid form, globs of the stuff squirming to the center of the room. "Anyone got something explosive…?"

Before anything volatile could be lit, the globs formed into a large, writhing mass of not even flesh, but of matter and shuddered once. Then it began to evaporate, to dissipate into the air in a light gray, placid smoke. The smoke itself disappeared once all the mass had changed matter.  
>The collective blink was audible. Heiji spoke all their minds. "Oookay….?"<p>

"I guess I do have something new for my books…"

"…let's just open the trunk before anything else happens…" Shinichi reasoned, kneeling by the prize. Without any further ado, he calmly chopped of the weak lock violently, not even in the mood to go look for a key. Property damage wasn't his concern. Throwing open the lid, he looked inside.

Heiji and Kaito managed to catch him by the arms when he stumbled back in shock, coughing. They began to cough as well while the room filled with a similar gray smoke that had just dispersed.

"Oh, I'm sorry Shinichi-kun, I guess this potion was a failure as well." The voice sounded full, older, and came from the gut.

Shinichi had fallen right on his bum, staring up at the overweight independent engineer/inventor standing in the chest he had just opened, steaming something or another, face charred, and could not believe he was the same sight as he had when he left him all those months ago. Blowing something up."…Hakase!?"

"…who?" The Rogue and Wizard were lost.

"Yes?" The old man seemed immune to the fumes. "Oh, hello Heiji-kun, I haven't seen you in a while either! How are you?"

"Why are you our treasure?" Saguru blurted out without thinking.

"…well that's very kind of you Saguru-kun…?"

"...How do you know my name?"

Shinichi decided to step in before things could get weird. "Hakase you…never mind. Well, you know Hattori, so this is Hakuba Saguru and Kuroba Kaito." He turned to his newfound acquaintances. "Kuroba, Hakuba, this is Hiroshi Agasa, a family friend and inventor. I've known Hakase for as long as I can remember."

"Oh…hello then, Hakase…" The proper reputation the school-brought up Wizard had worked so hard for had to be protected. "Pardon my rudeness."

"Not at all."

"Well I don't mean to be rude either , Ojii-san. We were on a quest to retrieve something, found a trunk, opened it up, and you popped out like a weasel in a trapper's furbag. Some background would be great." Kaito deadpanned. As much as he messed with people, on occasion weird surprises such as this were not too appreciated.

"That sounds like Kaito-kun," An even older sounding croaky voice said behind the large frame of Agasa. Somehow, the lithe, aged form of Jii managed to fit in the trunk as well, as from the knees down, they were in the case. "Smart-alec and all."

"Jii-chan!" Kaito exclaimed. Saguru's eyebrows shot up, but he seemed just as pleased as his partner.

The Favored Soul and Paladin were lost. "…who?"

"My dad's old friend. Konosuke Jii has been like my grandfather for as long since the cradle. What in the world are you doing here?"

"Agasa and I intend to get to that in a moment. Just know, we meant to bring you all together; everything that happened today we predicted or caused. Such as your loosing you juggling balls, Kaito-kun. But I digress. Right now, I believe you all need to explain some things to each other first…" He looked at Kaito meaningfully, particularly at his clothes. They were suddenly white. Kaito followed his gaze, and his eyes became saucers. Slowly his hands reached up to touch his face. Instead of his dirty fingers touching his cheekbone, a soft, silky gloved finger felt the coldness of metal through the fabric.

"…Crap…"

Agasa gave the same look to Shinichi, only he seemed to look down more than usual. Way, way, down. "You as well, Shinichi-kun. You ran out of the poultice, didn't you?"

"Mrrr tnnn mmm—"Shinichi began, and then poked his head up from the clothing. His clothing now was completely oversized, piling to his neck. Of course, the pile wasn't too big; just shy of three feet, which was an inch shy of Shinichi's height. "I think that's obvious, Hakase…" He adjusted his spectacles on his face that were also too big, but seemed to suit him. He pushed his glasses up on his nose and coughed if only to break the deafening silence.

"…why are you a kid?"

"…why are you _the_ Kid?"

Both questions and replies, in their execution, tone, and facial expressions confirmed the other's suspicions. Both rudely pointed at the other and yelled, "It's _you_!"

"This is even more confusing than the two men popping out of a chest who want to bring us together in a demon bat infested cave." Heiji whispered to Saguru, who, like him, could only watch.

Saguru nodded slowly. "…that was the most accurate sentence I have heard all day."

* * *

><p>Kaito came clean first, as he was the "bad" one apparently. The two goody two shoes refused to listen to another word that wasn't his explaining of his sudden costume change. He didn't try to persuade them to drop the idea; he wasn't even sure if he could, for something so apparent. He simply told him his story—from the streets to royal jewel rooms to meet Saguru to thieving on the road—and the reason behind it of course. Saguru chimed in for parts Kaito forgot now and then, so he spoke for a good amount as time as well.<p>

Shinichi and Heiji were good listeners. Like Saguru, Kaito could tell that they were asking themselves as he was speaking, "Why would you do that?". Like they were trying to understand fully his reasoning before passing judgment. And, just the same, he very much appreciated it.

By time he was done, Kaito could tell they at the very wouldn't hand him over to his pursuers; at least, not off the bat. Once done, Kaito was able to turn the tables and begin the "Chibi Kudo" questioning.

Shinichi decided he would choose his battles, and intead began to explain to everyone exactly what caused his vertical challenge. He had been in such a state for months.

Back when he was still working solo, Shinichi was just strolling through a forest, on his merry business. It was an enchanted forest. Not a dark or forbidden or evil forest-here people went to speak to friendly tree and water nymphs, or come across a rare mythical creature or collect plants with healing properties. It was very dense, full of flora and fauna. Everyone who went in was reported to have a wonderful time. The lord presiding over the area named it "Tropical Land" due to its variety of life and plants.

Shinichi had scoffed at the misnomer, as the Sixth realm was known for its temperate weathers. He also he was not too keen on the idea of paying to get into a forest, either. Nonetheless, after a particularly stressful week of splitting up questing, training, and spreading deductive reasoning awareness by being an example of the theory, the Favored Soul needed some fun. So, expecting no more than maybe a nice chat with a talking animal perhaps, he decided to go.

He didn't predict solving a murder on his miniature holiday. Then again, Shinichi really should have known that something had to go wrong on an endeavor he was partaking in, due to past experiences. Poor bloke was on the foliage, neck sliced. People milling about were surprised, somewhat insensitive. They'd seen a monster attack before, so they wrote it off as such. Shinichi of course saw right through the ruse to find the true human killer in no time, impressing everyone around. Not only was he very young to be so intelligent, but to master such high level "spellcasting" was amazing.

The Favored Soul didn't bother correcting them. It was a complicated process to explain to them all without their thinking he was an evil witch. And who was _he_ to pop their bubble? A few even recognized him for being a detective but before things could get too wild, he split off from the main forest trail, onto a road less traveled. Along the way, he came across two shady looking men he'd found at the scene. And while his work was done and he could have left the men to their most likely equally shady activities, he didn't.

Shinichi spied on the overweight crook make an illegal looking exchange with an equally overweight baron over some reputation ruining scrolls. Shinichi thought could report this to the kingdom's Regulators, and bust both offenders.

Curiosity always leads to trouble. This was no exception. Intelligent as Shinichi was, he'd forgotten that the fat one had a silver hair accomplice, who promptly hit him on the back of the head with a blunt weapon, most likely a branch. He'd dropped like a fly, bleeding from the injury. He couldn't focus on anything for the pain. But he could still hear somewhat. The men discussed his intruding their rendezvous, and some other things, but Shinichi could only focus so much for the pain.

He did catch what they were going to do to him. The fat one suggested he chop the punk into itty bitty pieces and be done with it. The silver haired one reprimanded his partner for being an idiot; it would he obvious it was a weapon who killed him, not a beast. He instead had a better idea. Their Syndicate had provided them with a brand new curse that would be completely intractable to magickers and muggles alike.

Shining could feel some nasty tasting herbs being forced down his throat. The only thing he was given to wash it down was an equally vile tonic. Having no other choice, he swallowed it all. Then he began the reciting. The words were in some other language, but the sound them did not seem good at all.

Then came the real pain. That godforsaken tree branch over the head was child's play. Not a verse into the chant did Shinichi feel the horrible, fiery sensation. It began in his stomach, where the herbs lay. It was as it they caught fire within him, and the blaze was spreading and intensifying to the point of a evil hellfire had to be engulfing him. The man had stopped chanting some time ago, and seemed amused by watching his horrific end. Once bored, they left him to die, certain he would perish.

When he woke up, the moon was high in the sky. He could barely see the moon however; as his he realized he was buried in someone's clothes...maybe the goons stripped him and left him some rags to cover his naked body? Shinichi was very confused, but blamed his distortion to being cracked upside the head too hard. He needed to wash his face of dirt and blood, get a drink of water, and figure things out.

Luckily, there was a small stream remembered passing on his way eavesdrop. Even though keep was too dark for him to even see his hands, Shinichi still had a degree of modesty, pulling the questionable material that was over him as a cover as he began walking. The steam was a lot farther away than he remembered. And the treetops seemed much higher up. Nevertheless, he came to the wonderful sound of moving water and kneeled at the brook. He drank to his heart's content, washing his face of grime.

Then Shinichi got a glimpse of his reflection by the light of the fairies. Even his scream had gone up several octaves, enough to either frighten off or attract creatures from all around him.

"After I first saw my reflection, I panicked," Shinichi said, hands grasped together from the memory. "But through my panic, I somehow found myself on Hakase's doorstep. We worked out what I would do there, especially since the Organization could still be on my tail. Together we came up with my glasses, new clothes and my alias…Conan Edogawa. Hakase said he would try to help me come up with a cure, but until then, I couldn't stay in that Realm. Or any one Realm, for too long. I became a nomadic miniature hermit, really."

That curse was very powerful and ancient, and only influential people would be able to get a hold of them. If they are expansive as they are powerful, then seeing me even as a kid may flare suspicion. We figured that if I continued in my detective work; busting crime rings that have been in the dark for centuries may just unearth the ring that did this to me."

"So just traveled the lands as a kid. I could pass off as an adult Halfing as long as people did not look closely, but more often than not I had to find some…inventive ways to solve mysteries. Things were still at a standstill as far as getting to the Organization until I met Hattori."

Heiji nodded his assent. "Twerp over here was all in my business on a case of mine. Actually, I half expected the great Favored Soul Kudo to show up, so I could see if he was actually a legit detective, or a phony. I even brought him a bottle of some of my mother's longevity tonic. Nasty stuff. Anyways, I figured out who he was by the second time we'd crossed paths, and we teamed up. It would be easier to find the Organization."

Shinichi nodded. "And that nasty tonic he sent? It turned me back to normal for a period of time. Until the next time we met I was going insane trying to find it again. "

"So when we teamed up, I got out all out family's supply. Everyone thought it just a clutter anyway."

"And that is why you gave it as a present to someone you didn't even know at the time, to do some cleaning." Saguru interjected.

"…Irrelevant. Think is…you really don't see kids just swigging down tonics left and right, you know? Well they _can_, no law or anything, but still. So we decided to save it for situations that we really need Kudo to be taller than my knee. Which is pretty often." Heiji tapped his chin thoughtfully. "In retrospect, we're probably too dependent on it."

This earned him the driest deadpan that could ever be on a child's face. "We? I don't see you at my eyelevel Hattori."

The taller boy simply waved this off. "Shh. The adults are talking. Anyways, that's our story!" He smiled at the two listeners as if he'd just told them about the nice lunch he had that afternoon.

"…and I thought my life was weird…"

"Pardon?"

"So, let me get this straight," Kaito said slowly across the flat gem formation, His partner, Kaito was seated beside him, and the Favored Soul and Paladin were seated across their make shift table."We," He gestured to himself and Saguru, "Were bestowed a quest to enter a monster infested cave and reclaim some old artifact our questee dropped there...by you."He pointed to the old man who had instinctively taken his place behind Kaito, who nodded his assent.

"And...you guys," He pointed unintentionally rudly addressee, "The detective team, one of whom is stuck as a kid after being force fed some magical plants and read to a demented poem essentially, at got the same quest at the same time, for an old artifact as well?"

"Well, Mr Bard-by-day-master-thief-Rouge-at-night and morally upstanding foreign Wizard, after a personified evil gem that can apparently cry and give someone a permanent "Get out of Morgue" pass, yes. Pretty much."

Shinichi had changed behind a rock into his "Conan" clothes he always kept with him, and was rejoining the group while putting on his shoes."Oh don't act like that you two. Both our situations are as equally bizarre. After what happened to me, I'm frankly open to believing it."

A shrug."Fair enough. And…you two did this?" The question was innocent enough, but the Paladin made sure there was a hint of distrust in his question.

Agasa shook his head no. Then, thinking on it a while, nodded. "At least, all the events of today. I gave Shinichi-kun and Heiji-kun their quest, and Jii gave you and Saguru-kun yours. The exact same time, place, and reason. Those bats weren't anything real, which is why they had no blood and dissipated. They were our creations to test your skills."

"And your reasoning in this, Ojii-san?" Heiji sighed, exasperated. "Pretty damn annoying and inconvenient, you know. Gerald is a sore loser."

Kaito sighed "Gerald. Do I even want to know?"

"The reason why I've been gone, Heiji-kun," Jii cut in, not wanting to know why either, "And why Agasa has been gone, Shinichi-kun, is because we were summoned by the Great Creator. We were to bring you all together, then test your skills together as a whole. It's to prepare you for what is coming."

"What's coming?"

"The Creator dictates that it is something beyond the confines of a sane mind. The evils that plague your lives now are the same that are stirring in our world, threatening life as we know it." Agasa answered gravely. It put quite a damper on the mood.

"That was a bit melodramatic, don't you think Hakase?"

"Perhaps, but it's the truth. Am I wrong, Jii?" He turned to the older man beside him.

"Yes, there's a great evil on the horizon," Jii confirmed. He secretly agreed with Shinichi on melodramatics, but that how things were as far as divine intervention for quests. Often sudden, under explained and rash, it would take a lot for a person to undergo such a request. Then again, deities always chose their heroes wisely.

The old man then looked at Saguru, who seemed a bit standoffish. His bronze eyebrows were furrowed at the ground, as if he was trying to work though a problem. "Saguru-kun, you've been quiet,"

Saguru didn't reply immediately. When he did after a few more seconds, he looked up at Jii, and the rest of the company. He had a smile with teeth on his lips; not exactly disdainful, but not exactly open minded either. "..So you're telling us that there was a creator… of our entire universe, I'm guessing, who wants us to team up to take out some…evil."

"_Is_ a creator, yes, and a malevolence that even Hell regrets."

Saguru didn't even seem hung up on the collaboration part or evil part. It was the former most that he was concerned about. He others he could believe. "No, _was."_

"I beg your pardon?'

_"_Where has he been all this time? Kuroba and I have been on our own since before we even met each other. My studies to believe that there are several deities in this world, yes, and Kudo being a favored soul is proof. Maybe Aoyama-sama once existed, but he's left us all now." Saguru reported matter-o-factly. "In fact, I met a boy on my travels. Kamen, I believe. A temper and Paladin like you Hattori, your wild hair Kuroba, and about the same height as Kudo over here. He used to believe in a power by that name. Said it spoke to him. Not anymore now."

Jii furrowed his eyebrows in disappointment. "Gosho Aoyama-sama looks after us all, Saguru-kun. He hasn't forgotten about you or Kaito. Has he, Kaito?"

Kaito shifted a little uncomfortably, but decided now was a good a time as any to share about his thoughts on the matter. "Alright…so every now and then, something...happens, when I'm in Kid uniform. I get almost…guided, when I'm not sure."

"Now is the time you decide you're going to be modest, Kuroba? That was your own ability." Saguru scoffed.

"Well yes, but I felt helped somehow. Like whenever something was going wrong, and like seriously wrong. I always connect to my father, but I think certain events in my life, becoming Kid and never getting caught, fighting the evil automaton doppelganger, coming face to face with Snake and getting out….it was all me, just with a push every now and then from Dad...and Aoyama-sama. The most recent one being…well, when you and I met Hakuba, and when we finally teamed up. It felt right."

Conan was nodding subconsciously, spectacles glaring a bit. It was almost eerie to the Wizard and Rogue, to see the face of a child almost spoiled by the stoic thinking expression of a man. The oddly deep child's voice was off putting too. "Hattori and I have known each other for a long time. I was skeptical of everything, even my favored patron, whoever it is; I still don't know. But it's almost like someone, I don't know, wrote in patches of my life.

Getting cursed, having to assume another identity, and meeting Hattori. "

Heiji rubbed his chin. Much like Saguru, he'd never felt such strong feeling towards the idea as Shinichi and Kaito. It seemed like more their destinies were being woven. He could relate to Saguru in a few ways, taking a more back seat, skeptical approach to the whole creator-writer-god whatever the hell they were talking about idea. Until he met Kudo, he had no funny good- "This is just so RIGHT" feelings. Sounded kinda sissy to him, actually.

Saguru must have at one point, and when it left for a while, it left him confused and disbelieving. He couldn't directly relate to that, but he understood.

Heiji had always been in the picture, at least thus far; Just not in the center.

Then again, a Paladin wasn't always meant to be the hero; he supported them. And that's just what he did. He put friendly shoulder on Saguru hand, who currently seemed like he was trying to rationalize the universe or something. "Look, Hakuba. Me and Kudo both are like you, Justice Bringers—

Kaito raised a hand. "Can we just call you detectives? Rolls off the tongue easier. "

"Fine. The lot of us, three detectives and a damn thief. " Heiji rolled his eyes, even though he agreed with the Rogue. "Coincidences happen, but not to us. I'm not gonna say anything about feeling any mojo feelings, but I will say this: Me and Kudo's meeting, you and Kuroba's meeting—hell, all four of us meeting—was meant to happen. Why, or through whom, I don't know and don't care. Just be satisfied for not knowing all the full picture, 'cause you're getting the puzzle pieces as they come. Alright?"

Hot headed Hattori Heiji had actually talked some good sense into Saguru. That alone was almost a basis for a proof. Saguru took his mocha eyes from the floor, something changed in them. That was the best explanation for anything he'd heard all day. He knew there was something out there…question was if it was still with them to be relevant or not. He was willing to find out, regardless. "You are right, Hattori. Kudo, your analogy to writing…Ilike it. An…author, of sorts. Maybe he went on a hiatus of sorts?"

"That has a nice ring to it! We'll call Aoyama-sama the Author."

The ghost of a smile Saguru had rarely permitted at all became corporal again. "I can live with that."

Both Jii and Agasa had been observing the belief powwow all the time it was going on, and both spirits seemed very pleased.

Jii spoke for them both. "I'm glad to hear that…because actually, I have a mandate from the...Author, himself. He communicated through us that yes, both of the evil consortium are one in the same, and want the same thing; immortality. "

"They go about in different ways, but they'll soon come full circle. The only way that you will go back to your normal form is that you need to embrace your height and use it to your advantage Shinichi-kun…or Conan-kun, now." Agasa gave him a sympathizing look at the other spectacle wearer. He knew the transformation was a blow to his pride, and a low blow at that. He'd been watching from afar, and had helped him make the alias before he had to let him find his own way. He told him specifically that there was danger in his being normal sized, and forbid him from enchanting himself from changing his appearance.

He could get hurt his loved ones hurt if the Organization ever found out….Then again, Shinichi did not have loved ones that were within the Organization's reach; his parents were powerful and highly guarded, and he himself had become a nomad as of late, so there was nothing to really disguise for. Until now. "There's reason behind it, and you need to come to terms that you'll be a kid for a little while longer than you thought."

It was almost disturbing how many swear were muttered form such a tiny body. He obviously was picking up a bad habit or two from Hattori. They seemed to have a therapeutic result for the boy-teen as he eventually agreed that it was best, and took of the useless amulet that had given him the faux appearance that really was his appearance. Regardless, the ears of all involved were still defiled.

"…Well then, Kudo…" Saguru began. So much annoyed cynicism. He of course couldn't talk, but to hear it from a little boy's face….  
>Kaito had to keep from laughing the entire time. "You seem to handle yourself just fine as a little guy though! More aggressive even…bet you can do more than shoot, huh…?"<p>

Trust me Kuroba, the guy gives me-well, almost gives me-a a run for my money, so that's saying a lot. Give him something to kick though, and it's all over." He bent down to Conan's level and ruffled his hair—he missed being able to do that when he had his amulet on. "Hey, so now you can be like Kuroba! Shinichi the Favored Soul by day…" Heiji announced ominously. "Conan the Barbarian at night!"

"Oh shut up!"

"Moving on…Heiji-kun, you're meant to help him in this side quest, main quest being to stop the Organization. You will also gain something at the end of your journey as well, do not despair."

"What, I get a growth spurt too?" Heiji deadpanned. "I just want to squash the Organization that's been screwing around in my realm, other realms, and my friend. That's it."

"Hattori…"

"Don't get watery eyed on me, kid."

"Barou!"

While Agasa had to mediate the play fight that had broken out between the two, Jii turned his attention to his charges."As for you, Kaito-kun…or should I say, Kaitou Kid-san?" Jii said both latter and former with a certain affection in his tone. "Before I left, I told you of your family's complicated past with the Syndicate…and you took upon the mantle as its rightful owner, and doing it justice ever since. You have come to terms with you alter ego, but you've yet to learn to truly trust and depend on other people like you'll need to eventually be able to avenge your father and destroy Pandora. You have taken a big step, in finally seeing someone as you equal. And I thank you for that, Saguru-kun." He nodded to the blonde, who respectfully did the same.

"I understand, Jii-chan…and it's nice to see you again." Kaito smiled at the old man who had been his father's right hand man and acted as a grandfather toward him. "And your right, I think I'll keep the prick."

"_Excuse me?_"

"Sorry, sorry! Detective Prick-san. Better?"

Saguru smirked and pointed at Kaito's' head. Immediately a small stalagmite above them dissolved into dust and fell on the magician's head. He made a bad auburn haired fellow, but Saguru hadn't taken that into account when he was busy laughing at him. "Much better, yes."

"Oh, you want to mess with THIS hair Wizard boy? Bring it!

"Boys, boys, boys!" The two elders spoke in disjointed unison.

"What?!" The boys spoke in perfect unison.

"Can you make it official, at least?"

"What official?"

"That you four will quest across for many seasons it takes, be it one, ten, or over twenty seasons, you MUST complete this quest eventually. Time may even seem to stop for you until you do; that's how important this will be eventually."

"Yes, yes, very important, break rocks, achieve puberty, got it. " Kaito gave them a thumbs up. He turned his back from the apparitions to the now three people he considered his fellow questers, party members, and friends. "How about we put a hand in."

"Put a hand in?"

"Do what I do," The Rogue instructed. He turned his back from the apparitions to face his fellow questers, party members, and friends. Then he extended an arm forward towards the middle of the circle the four had made. As he predicted, Saguru gave him the benefit of the doubt. After a moment of skepticism, a large, pale hand was hovering in front of his, middle finger touching. Kaito slide his hand under Saguru's palm, so they were stacked. Seconds later, a familiar lithe hand laid horizontally on Saguru's from Kaito's left. Finally, a brown, tan hand followed suit, only from the right.

Once done, emerald, azure and mocha eyes fixed on his indigo, waiting for his word on something.

"Prophesy thing or not, let's get something straight." He began, for once not in a joking manner. "Things won't be rainbows and sunshine just because we're all together. In fact, I'm willing to bet that things are only going to get more dangerous." He side glanced at Jii, whose expression gave away nothing. "Whatever evil is surrounding the Organization-Syndicate, it will know that we're on its ass. It won't like that. Chances are, we all individually have gotten close to it at some point or another, but it could throw the wool over eyes for that same reason. They can't evade all four of us now. We can destroy them; And they'll do anything to stop us.

I'm not going to promise anything. One, two, three, hell, all of us may end up biting the dust getting this thing. Very least, we'll get hurt in several ways,. But let me make one thing clear; My goal is to track down this Syndicate and bring it DOWN. I know what it's like to" have something taken away from you, to not even feel like you're your own persona anymore…but I carry on. We will all carry on." His eyes darkened, his voice a little hoarse. By whatever means necessary, I swore to myself, Jii and my father that I would tear down every foundation of it. Member by member. Brick by brick. I'd see the end of that accursed stone and make sure no one is killed over it again. If this foreboding evil coincides with that, then perfect. And if you're not going to be with me to the end of this, wherever it may be, then we may as well part now." He paused for effect. "…No takers? Good." He took a breath, then smiled genuinely at the lot of them.

"Then that means we're in this to win this. Whether you like it or not, you're my friend now. I assume that's brotherhood as well, but I've never had a brother or cousin or anything, so. You three will have to do. I have your back, so instead of stabbing my back, expect you watch my back, as I will for you. Okay?" For the fluidity of his speech, the abrupt, simple ending was a surprise.

The three glanced at each person for a long while, assessing the other, mentally forming their own opinions, expectations, and thoughts. So each in their own way, they confirmed their assent.

"""I'm in."""

Kaito's smile returned. "Alright." He withdrew his hand from the group. "Then it's settled."

"Well now that's covered." Saguru said, digging out a quill. He worked as he moved, book levitating to a height he could write in, pulling out his own spectacles. "Mmm-hmm…"

"Should we have a name for ourselves?" Conan wondered aloud. The specific Justice Bringers categories have different names for what they deal with…like that group of high level Clerics? The Clergy? Or the Hunters—female Rangers. Never mind all the groups like us that have several kinds of classes…"

"I'm sure the name will come to us on our travels." Kaito returned his daggers to their sheaths. He pulled out his juggling balls instead. "Seems like well be on them for a while."

"Very true. Well," Heiji put his helmet into his rugsack, sword and shield strapped on his back. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting more claustrophobic by the second. Think we should work on digging ourselves out now."

"There's no need. Jii and I have amended that. We knew the cave in would happen, so we went through the time to make these," He gestured to a large blue star on the ground,. "Engineers have found a way to transport people using technology and magic. These things are everywhere now."

"They're called Portals. They can transport you to any place in the Realms that has another similar blue Portal. You'll find them mostly in taverns, town squares, or any gateways outside of a city. I'd suggest getting out of here first—we set up a temporary one outside. Then head to the nearest city tavern to restock, and most likely find some inner city dilemma. You four will have an aptitude for finding mayhem, I'm sure." Agasa said the last with a genuine smile, though he was very, very right.

"Well that's convenient…"

"We know. So don't get used to it. Things will be getting a lot tougher here on out."

"We won't," Shinichi promised, letting Heiji take his too big bag, as he brought up the rear to the Portal. "Good bye!"

"Good bye Jii-san, Agasa-san, it was a pleasure!"

"Seeya! Next time some REAL treasure at the end, okay?"

"You two owe me another juggling ball now…I never found the fourth one…"

By then the two men were just laughing good-heartedly, saying their mutual goodbyes and promises to correct themselves. One after one they disappeared into the light, only to begin their odyssey of an adventure.

The cave seemed emptier already. The inventor turned, a little gleam of worry in his eyes. "You think they can do it, Jii?"

"They'll be fine, Agasa," Jii reassured him, patting his back. "They're Gosho's Boys. "

* * *

><p>Yes. Dreamer just went there. Medieval, Lord of the Rings-esque DC MK with some Dungeons and Dragons Online, League of Legends, and World of Warcraft sprinkled with shenanigans thrown in. Sprinkled with steampunk.

I have no regrets. I had to do SOMETHING this summer, ne?

I have absolutely no idea if that made sense at all to some people...I really hope so, because I had a lot of fun with it! (and that was a wasted 11 months in the making T-T ).

I highly encourage if You are super confused you PM me. I can reference or explain anything you like

Moving on...so, I completely tweaked the DCMK universes in this. How Kaito became Kid, Shinichi's shrinking, etc. Notice how there was no Ran or Aoko involved in this... I have my reasons.

I like to think I knocked on the fourth wall quite a bit, particularly with Saguru's questioning of the supreme power of his universe, Gosho Aoyama-sama. Because come on, of all of them to be least doubtful that their Author is still out there, it would be Saguru. Kaito has had his cameos as Kid in DC, and Gosho's focused on Shinichi and Heiji at the moment. Of course, Saguru has gotten some more spotlight in Magic Kaito as of late, but still. I really think he would have a mentally like that.

(Also I promise that's the closest I'll get to religion in ANY of my fics. Keep them as Goshi intended, you know?)

Heh heh... Conan the Barbarian... it was RIGHT there. Actually, that idea is what spawned this thing in the first place. It would have been Shinichi -centric until I remember my43770-san's comments for Kaito to have a turn. So you all can thank her/him for Kaito stealing back the spotlight! :)

As for the writing itself... well I had spellcheck. IMPROVEMENT. But I do wonder if my style (whatever that is) has changed...and if for the better or worse. Some input if any would be wonderful for that if you could. Thanks in advance!

Now, time for the super important announcement...TMPF will only have TEN chapters. No more, no less. Want to finish it evenly. But for he finale, things will be a bit different.

Instead of a HUGE one shot involving all the Gosho Boys being together, this last chapter will have much shorter (3k TOPS ) snippets from any Gosho Boy. So it may focus on one of them, a duo, trio, or all four. In mini packages of ideas I have but can't take the full distance. Plunnies galore! THERE will be completely new ones, and maybe I'll even touch back on some previous chapters (Who DID win the election? Did the boys ever pay off their debt? Or explode from their superpowers? Or have a wii/PS3/XBox game night? ).

That's where you all come in. I have idea Sure, but they need to at Least hit 15k. Can't let myself beat myself now. I want YOU, studio audience, to give me some plunnies! Of all the DC and MK we all have watched I know I'm not the only one who has fantasized of an epic bromance. This is the time to get it out (if ya know, you don't think I'd Butcher it).

I'd credit you the idea, give a shoutout. If you have a title, I'll go with that. I will read and consider them all, but to help their chances, please keep in mind:

The rating: Keep it relatively clean, guys. Violence I am a bit more lax on, but the sexytimes won't be rolling in here.

The pairings: Either single, or with their partner that I have expressed my preference. Canon expressed love triangles can be touched upon too, I dont mind those. Just dont expect any real fluff. Ai and Conan, Ai and Ayumi, Kaito and Ran, Kaito and Akako, etc. Hate-Hate relationships such as Saguru and Akako, are cool, just know they prolly won't end together.  
>Oh, and bromance between the boys. Notice the "b".<p>

Who I know/Can write : ...so I am behind on DC. Sue me. Sera I vaguely know. Bourbon is a mystery. Agasa or Jii, even though i used them here, not really. There hasn't been a Org members or FBI/CIA appearance because I want to keep things light and bromance centered, and they bring a LOT of drama. And a lot of backstory. Trying to avoid that.

OCs/Mary Stu : Nope. Nope nope nope. None of that. I will probably butcher your character anyway, and make them either completely insignificant or way too important ...

Genre: Humor is always fun, but I would considered other bromancey ones like hurt/comfort, family things like that. Even angst is cool. Just keep it hopeful.

Now that I have crushed all your ideas...

You can do it any format you like, be it PM or review..(if you want it a surprise to the world, I would go with the latter) LiveJournal Challenge format that's is like a sentence to build around, quote or even a few words, or bouncing ideas with me, or just much a skeleton of what you'd like to see!

I dunno when I'll stop this open idea. I'll see how the turn out is. Ill be expectind PMs everyone! RELEASE THE PLUNNIES!

Lol (Lots of Love)

~Daydreamer1412


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